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U.N. Address 9/23/91 [OA 8323] [11]
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U.N. Address 9/23/91 [OA 8323] [11]
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3
Communist Party, a criminal organization if ever there
society is another matter. It is not less foul because it is
was one, which cast its shadow over half of the world and
so familiar.
almost an entire century, and was responsible for the
I am grateful to Stephen F. Cohen for reminding us of
death of scores of millions of people, the only thing that
the danger of what he called the "mob." I share these
Cohen worries about, at least on television, is that Yeltsin
anxieties. I insist, however, that the historian's erudition
is not playing according to democratic rules, that in his
is glib and misapplied, that the people who surrounded
bold and peremptory blow against the Party he does not
the White House in Moscow and brought the first stir-
follow the rules of the democratic textbook-as if
rings of real democracy to Russia do not deserve to be
democracy in the Soviet Union could be born in any
called a mob. This time the crowd was not the mob. This
other way, as if democracy is a Platonic thing that is indif-
time the crowd was the people. It was one of those rare
ferent to the circumstances in which it finds itself and
moments when the crowd is transformed, by truth and
must follow clear and ideal formulas.
by danger, into something higher, not something lower.
A man who watches a wolf devouring his child does
Every one of the men and women who assembled out-
not begin a discussion of animal rights. And if he does,
side the Russian Parliament building left his or her home
he is doing the wolf's work. I can understand, in a way,
alone, and headed in the rainy night toward the danger
the hypocrisy of a man like A. Shalnyev, a correspon-
without any certainty that they were joining anything
dent for Izvestia who deplores the undemocratic closing
larger or safer than themselves.
of Pravda, who says that he would prefer that Pravda
It is amazing, this sweet and shared sensation of the
compete with the democratic press in a free market,
road to freedom, this sudden smashing of the prison
which is a bit like proposing that a beggar compete with
doors, this deep intake of oxygen after decades of foul
Donald Trump in a free market. Shalnyev was a faithful
vapors. My phone rings endlessly. American Russians are
servant of communism even before perestroika. I
calling, Russian Russians are calling. They call to congrat-
expect nothing else from him. But the homemade left-
ulate all of us, and to laugh with joy. Never in my life did I
ism of those who were lucky enough to be born in a free
expect to hear so much Russian laughter.
The unleashing of Soviet nationalisms.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT
By Walter Laqueur
OW great a matter a little fire kindleth! When
H
both the Communist diehards and the nationalist party:
Gennadi Yanayev informed the world on
"How could it have come to pass that we left in power
August 19 of Mikhail Gorbachev's sudden ill-
people who do not love this country, who behave like
ness, he and his fellow plotters could not possi-
lackeys vis-à-vis their well-wishers from overseas?" The
bly have foreseen the consequences of their action: the
appeal stated that there were more patriotic leaders to
burial of communism in Russia and the disintegration
be found in Russia, and that the armed forces would
of the Soviet Union as we have known it in our time.
support them in accordance with their sacred obliga-
Rumors about an impending coup had been rampant
tions. The manifesto was signed not only by several lead-
for a long time. Even dates had been hazarded in
ing publicists of the right, but by the commander of the
September and October last year, and again in Decem-
Soviet army, General Valentin Varennikov, and the
ber. Eduard Shevardnadze had warned in his resigna-
deputy minister of the interior, General Boris Gromov
tion speech of a coup. Aleksandr Yakovlev, once Gor-
(of Afghanistan fame). They, too, had been appointed
bachev's closest ally, had mentioned this threat on
by Gorbachev, who left soon afterward for a well-
August 1, and again a few days before the tanks began
deserved holiday in the Crimea.
to roll, when he resigned. On July 22 an open letter had
After the coup Yakovlev related a conversation with
been published in Sovetskaya Rossiya, the mouthpiece of
Gorbachev in which the president had dismissed the
warnings: "They are cowards, they won't dare...." In
WALTER LAQUEUR is the author of Long Road to Freedom:
fact, the eight members of the "Emergency Committee"
Russia & Glasnost and Stalin: the Glasnost Revelations,
were neither adventurists nor right-wing extremists.
both published by Macmillan.
They were cautious, middle-of-the-road apparatchiks
24 THE NEW REPUBLIC SEPTEMBER 16 & 23, 1991
who made the decision, without apparent enthusiasm,
gia, living up to his reputation as an eccentric, did not
to depose the man who had appointed them. They
condemn the plotters either, albeit for different rea-
assumed that a stand had to be made in defense of their
sons. As he saw it, Gorbachev himself had engineered
power and the privileges of their caste. Marx once
the coup, and he stuck to this version even after the
noted that ruling classes seldom if ever surrender their
coup had failed.
positions voluntarily, and Russia was no exception.
The Orthodox Church leaders did not respond for
The plotters were also convinced, not without reason,
many hours to Yeltsin's appeal to condemn the coup.
that the policies pursued by Gorbachev had failed, that
Aleksandr Bessmertnykh, the foreign minister,
Gorbachev was utterly discredited, that order had to be
announced that he was running a temperature, and
re-established ("no more experiments") to prevent gen-
went fishing: an old Russian anti-pyretic. The Soviet
eral chaos and economic ruin. As far as they were con-
envoy to Japan declared that the coup was absolutely
cerned, their own interests and those of their country
necessary, and forty-eight hours later said that he was
coincided. They also thought that a mere show of force
truly relieved that Gorbachev was back as the stabilizer.
would be sufficient to defeat the liberals and the sepa-
Guerman Gventsadze, the Soviet chargé in Dublin,
ratists.
called the coup constitutional, and observed that the
Hence the curious halfheartedness in the execution
emergency committee had wide popular support. (Two
of the coup. It goes without saying that if it had been
days later he made it known that his original statement
executed by the obvious candidates (the black colonels
had been misinterpreted.) There were countless such
of the nationalist Soyuz faction), or if the leading fig-
cases, and even more cases of fence-sitting. Mass sup-
ures of the old regime had been assassinated or merely
port for Yeltsin materialized only on Tuesday night. By
arrested, or if the Russian Parliament had been stormed
Thursday, however, hundreds of thousands demon-
by a few tanks and communications had been cut, the
strated, and on Saturday a million people paid their last
insurgents would have stayed in power for the next five
respects to the victims of the coup.
or ten years. Of course, they would have failed in the
end; but the years between would have been exceed-
hy did the committee fail, if there was so little
ingly uncomfortable ones for the Soviet Union and the
W
resistance? The answer is that there may not
rest of the world.
have been much active opposition to the
Myths spread fast, and it is now widely believed that the
plot, but there was not much public support
coup, carried out by a group of adventurers of the
for it either. The conspirators did not seem to have a
extreme right, was defeated by the people's power. But
majority of votes for convoking the Central Committee,
the gang of eight was not defeated by the people of
which would have given their action at least an aura of
Moscow. The Soviet capital is a city of some 10 million
legality. Worse, there was no unanimity in the army and
inhabitants. (Nobody knows the exact figure, because
the KGB. Some key commanders, such as the head of the
there are many hundreds of thousands of limitchiki, ille-
air force, but also some naval, KGB, and parachute com-
gal residents over and above the official limit imposed.)
manders, refused to cooperate. These were not great
Of these, according to a poll carried out on the second
liberal reformers; they simply did not want to become
day of the coup, some 73 percent were opposed to it. But
involved in party politics. Among the army comman-
these 73 percenters did not take to the street. They were
ders, there was apparently a majority in favor of a mili-
anxious, they were grumbling, but they thought it was no
tary show of strength-but not in favor of bloodshed.
good to argue with tanks. Most of them also went to
The plotters could still have proceeded with their
work. It was owing to Boris Yeltsin and his supporters-
plans, using some reliable elite units to storm the Rus-
several thousand determined men and women defend-
sian Parliament and to arrest the main oppositionists.
ing the Russian Parliament during the critical hours of
They could have called for mass demonstrations against
Monday and Tuesday-that Russia's honor was saved.
Gorbachev; and it is quite likely that they would have
had a big crowd in the streets of Moscow, for Gor-
T
here was more opposition in Leningrad than in
bachev's unpopularity is legendary. But this went
Moscow, and there was resistance in the Kuzbas
against their grain. The conspirators were not populist
region of Siberia and even in the Far East. But
rabble-rousers, and their hands were trembling. At this
the first reaction from the republics was either
stage, in the late hours of Tuesday afternoon and into
favorable to the coup, or very cautious (the Ukraine,
the early hours on Wednesday, their resolve faltered.
Kazakhstan). Not a single republican leader outside the
There was no obvious leader among them to stiffen
Baltic countries condemned the coup. Islam Karimov of
their backbone, and the first defections took place:
Uzbekistan welcomed it as "vital for the restoration of
Valentin Pavlov suddenly developed high blood pres-
discipline." Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, the
sure, and Anatoly Lukyanov simply kept in the back-
cleverest and most progressive of the Central Asian lead-
ground. The old Bolsheviks had known the golden rule
ers, carefully refrained from denouncing the coup until
of insurgency: to press ahead relentlessly once the deci-
it became clear that it had failed. By Wednesday Kari-
sion to act had been taken. But the plotters of 1991
mov and Nazarbayev announced that they had left the
were not of the caliber of Lenin and Trotsky. They were
Communist Party in protest and that they had banned
Party cells in government. Sviad Gamsakhurdia of Geor-
bureaucrats, not professional revolutionaries. They
ignored a rule that any self-respecting nineteenth-
26 THE NEW REPUBLIC SEPTEMBER 16 & 23, 1991
century insurgent would have regarded as rudimentary.
to the social and political ferment.
The coup was in considerable part the result of Gor-
In the Caucasus, a civil war has been raging for the
bachev's long-standing failure to act decisively. In the
last two years, and it is impossible to see what force will
early years he had been a major liberating force. Per-
now prevent open warfare between Armenia and Azer-
haps he even knew, back then, what he wanted to
baijan and between Georgia and the Ossetians. The pre-
achieve. But he never had a clear, consistent course of
dominantly Russian inhabitants of the eastern Ukraine
action. He veered left and swerved right. He pushed
have not much in common with the Ukrainian-speaking
through all kinds of half-baked projects. He did not
(and Uniate Catholic) western Ukrainians, and the will-
defend his democratic allies, and he made many disas-
ingness on both sides to make compromises cannot be
trous appointments. He postponed for too long action
taken for granted. Westerners often talk about Muslim
on the status of the non-Russian republics. And thus, in
Central Asia as if it were an entity, but the only common
the end, he found himself virtually isolated. Yeltsin, on
feature among its inhabitants is their hatred of the Rus-
the other hand, showed not only courage but a faultless
sians. National tensions there are running deep, and
sense of timing. His choice of advisers and assistants,
once the Russians are gone, the situation may well turn
moreover, was infinitely superior to Gorbachev's. He
into a brutal free-for-all. Even inside the Russian repub-
deserved to emerge as the hero and the victor of the
lic there are strong separatist movements: the Tatars in
August revolution.
the Kazan region have insisted on autonomy for a long
And yet, in the final analysis, is it fair to put all the
time, Siberians want their own republic, and there is
blame on Gorbachev for the failure of reforms? He had
trouble in the Crimea and elsewhere.
no power base other than the Party, the KGB, and the
army, and they did not want radical change. He inher-
A
Ithough Yeltsin has been generous vis-à-vis the
ited an economy and a social system that no longer
other republics, he certainly has no wish to liq-
functioned. He faced political apathy among the
uidate the RSFSR. In the short run, the Russian
masses, a lack of initiative and creativity, an absence of a
federation, Azerbaijan, as well as the five Cen-
civic spirit and a democratic tradition. Thus he lost,
tral Asian republics might sign a new Union treaty, and
within two years, all political credit. But even a political
White Russia and the Ukraine can perhaps be per-
genius might not have succeeded in these conditions.
suaded to enter into a close relationship with the new
Surely it was unrealistic to hope that the consequences
confederation. From the Russian point of view, close
of seventy-four years of Soviet rule could be overcome
cooperation with the Ukraine is infinitely more impor-
within a few years. And a well-meaning compromiser
tant (for historical and political reasons as well as eco-
was certainly not the right candidate for the demolition
nomic ones) than the link with the Central Asian
job.
republics and Azerbaijan, the most backward and the
most corrupt parts of the former Soviet empire. Their
T
hen, almost miraculously, the movement for
interest in perestroika and glasnost is strictly limited;
radical reform was given a second chance as the
they wish to maintain the link with Moscow because
result of a bungled coup carried out by the
they vitally need Russian economic support. But sooner
wrong plotters at the wrong time. The opportu-
or later they will break away, and Russia will be consid-
nity was seized by Yeltsin, not by Gorbachev. He, Gor-
erably better off without them.
bachev, failed to understand that within three days a rev-
The new political map of the former Soviet Union
olution had taken place. The results of that revolution
will not be firmly established for years to come. Perhaps
are known: the breakdown of the Union and the pass-
there will be greater willingness to cooperate once the
ing of the Communist Party as the ruling force in the
euphoria of independence-at-any-price gives way to a
country. It is the most important political change in the
sober confrontation with economic realities. Most of the
Soviet Union since 1917. But it is also a giant step into
newly independent republics will lose their traditional
the unknown. The components of the Soviet Union are
markets and will be saddled with industries (more often
now as close to chaos and to ruin as they were before
the gang of eight made its move.
than not geared to work for the defense sector) for
whose output there is no demand. Once the Ukraine
The breakdown of the Union was probably inevitable
under the circumstances, but it is still a disaster. For it is
was a major food exporter, but Western Europe pro-
duces much more food now than it can consume, and
a retrograde development. At a time when all over
the last thing it needs is the import of steel and similar
Europe the general trend is toward unification, the ten-
dency among these newly independent states is toward
commodities. Illusions about speedy integration into a
separatism. Much worse, since none of the new inde-
common European market are bound to fade very soon
in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
pendent republics is ethnically homogeneous, and since
The Russian republic is the only force that counts in
the new rulers will not be primarily concerned with the
terms of world politics. Yeltsin's position seems unassail-
rights of minorities, all the preconditions will now exist
able at this moment; he boldly seized the initiative, and
for national strife on a massive scale. Some of the
the old Communists are on the run. But there is a mass of
minorities may leave: it is unlikely, for instance, that
discontented people, and as the domestic situation dete-
many Russians will stay in Central Asia. But their return
to Russia, embittered and without means, will only add
riorates they will gain new courage. The bungled coup
makes a repeat performance in the very near future
SEPTEMBER 16 & 23, 1991 THE NEW REPUBLIC 27
unlikely, but in a year or two there could well be another
shortages should become even more acute, a new bid
attempt to turn back the clock, carried out by men whose
for power is almost a foregone conclusion.
hands may not tremble. Indeed, since the present honey-
How long will Yeltsin and his supporters be able to
moon will not last many months, even a legal constitu-
maintain the momentum of their campaign, and what
tional challenge to the reformers cannot be excluded.
can we do to help?
After a recent visit to Germany, I returned with the
lthough communism is widely detested, the
A
clear impression that East Germany is about to turn the
democratic movement in the Soviet Union has
corner. There is still much discontent, and it will proba-
not yet put down deep roots. Outside Moscow,
bly take another two years until significant sections of the
Leningrad, Sverdlovsk (Yeltsin's erstwhile power
population will enjoy the fruits of the recovery. To
base), and a few other major cities, old-style Communists
achieve this, West Germany had to invest sums much
are still in power and the majority of the population has
greater than originally planned: up to the end of next
been apathetic. White Russia is still known as the Soviet
year, the total may well amount to about $150 billion.
Vendée (a reference to the most counterrevolutionary
And East Germany was a country of less than 17 million.
region in France at the time of the revolution), even if its
The Soviet Union, by contrast, counts some 295 million
head of government had to resign. As Christ stopped at
inhabitants. The sums needed for the rebuilding of the
Eboli, glasnost and perestroika never really transformed
Soviet economy ought to be measured in trillions. The
Odessa and Rostov, Baku and Saratov, Perm and Gorki,
fact that the East German work force was of a higher cal-
Novorossisk and Chabarovsk. Whoever has visited the
iber, and that the old Soviet Union (with its division of
cities of Central Russia not that far from Moscow, places
labor of sorts) is now dissolved, does not help either.
such as Vologda and Yaroslavl, Tula and Tambov, Tver
The United States' capacity to help is limited by its
and Kaluga, knows that virtually all the key positions of
enormous domestic problems. The Japanese are reluc-
power, in politics as in the economy, are in Communist
tant, Germany has given more than the rest, and the
hands.
other Europeans talk of hundreds of millions when
It is comparatively easy to make changes in Moscow
hundreds of billions are needed. It has been argued by
and Leningrad. Who will replace the local bureaucrats,
some misguided spirits in the West that Gorbachev fell
the police chiefs, and factory managers elsewhere? After
because the West refused to give him the economic
1917 it took the Bolsheviks four years to prevail outside
help he needed. But no amount of Western loans and
Moscow and Leningrad. Today the Communists are
credits would have made the difference, because under
more deeply entrenched in these places than the czarist
Gorbachev the preconditions for improvement, that is
bureaucracy was (and there are many more of them),
to say, structural change, did not exist. They do exist,
and it is doubtful whether Yeltsin has four years at his
however, under Yeltsin.
disposal. Lenin and Trotsky sent the Red Army to sup-
press local uprisings: Yeltsin will probably not be able to
H
elp, urgently and on a massive scale, is now
do the same.
needed-not so much in money, but in kind
Many millions of Party and state bureaucrats will now
(for example, food to alleviate critical short-
lose their jobs, not to mention the army and state secu-
ages). Above all, it is necessary to modernize
rity officers. Unlike after 1917, however, there will not
the Soviet communications system, which is, at the pre-
be a mass exodus of the losers. The Russian nationalists
sent time, the essential precondition for economic
were caught off balance by the coup of the gang of
progress. Such first aid cannot come from the private
eight, and by Yeltsin's decisive action. Still, sooner or
sector; Soviet foreign reserves are down to between
later they will rally again to their cause. There are mil-
$6 billion and $7 billion. Its debt repayment bill will be
lions of them. They are firmly convinced that the loss of
more than twice that much toward the end of the year.
empire was brought about by an act of high treason.
The prospect of these enormous quantities of assistance
They are anti-Western, anti-Semitic, populist opponents
may not be a very tempting proposition for the West,
of the liberalization of the economy. They believe in a
but the alternative is even less inviting. It will certainly
united, indivisible Greater Russia. Some elements of
be more expensive to contain Yeltsin's successors.
the old Communist Party will transform themselves into
The shock waves of the Russian earthquake will con-
Social Democrats, but others will join forces with the
tinue, and the ultimate outcome of the present struggle
extreme nationalists, and this may pave the way for a
for power in Moscow will not be certain for a long time.
second coming of National Bolshevism. This will be
Yeltsin and his opponents might be challenged in the
abetted by the existence of a considerable Lumpenprole-
capital. Almost certainly there will be open and passive
tariat: in the recent RSFSR elections, Vladimir Zhiri-
resistance on the local level. It is not at all clear that the
novsky, a rabble-rouser who was almost certainly spon-
cause of freedom and radical reform will prevail in the
sored by either the Party apparatus or the KGB, polled
near future. And it will be a near miracle if it triumphs
some 8 million votes on a platform whose most promi-
peacefully, without the application of force. With some
nent plank was the lowering of the price of vodka.
luck, Russia might escape another ruinous civil war. But
The new Russian federation, in sum, will be a giant
there are no certainties, except that the country has
cave of Adulam in which the great mass of discontented
will gather. If they find a charismatic leader, and if the
now entered, at long last, the post-Communist stage of
its history.
28 THE NEW REPUBLIC SEPTEMBER 16 & 23, 1991
P.2/9
SEP 18 '91 08:26AM STATE DEPT IQ/IAP&PA
FROM JOHN BOLTON
ASSISTANT SECRETARY
President's Speech to the UN
OF STATE
I am happy to be here before you today. Indeed, I can not
think of a single General Assembly in the history of the U.N.
which I would have addressed with greater pleasure and pride.
The world has changed immensely in the three years since I
was inaugurated president of the united states -- and most of
those changes have been to the good. There is a new wave of
freedom sweeping over the world. In virtually every corner of
the world, repressive governments have been swept aside by this
tide. In their place have sprung up democracies -- fragile
democracies, admittedly, which must be nurtured in order to
withstand the dauntng difficulties they confront. But
democracies nonetheless, affiriming the rights of the
individual, while truly responding to the collective will of
the people.
The changes of the past three years have also brought to an
end the superpower rivalry which had poisoned the international
scene for generations. The elimination of this rivalry has in
turn made it possible for the United Nations to assume its
proper role on the world stage -- the role envisaged by its
founders over 45 years ago. At that time, the founding nations
set out a series of goals for the new organization:
-- saving mankind from the scourge of war;
-- reaffirming faith in fundamental human rights, in the
dignity and worth of the human person;
-- promoting respect for international law; and
-- contributing to mankind's social progress and material
prosperity in freedom.
These are lofty goals, but goals which the U.N. has worked
contructively towards in recent months.
A little over a year ago, all the progress which had been
made in constructing a safer, more peaceful world was
threatened -- threatened by a meglomaniac who ruthlessly
invaded and occupied a smaller neighbor. In times past, the
U.N.'s response to such a provocation likely would have been
tentative and indecisive. This time, however, the response was
clear and unequivocal -- the U.N. would not let naked
aggression go unpunished. This message will doubtless be
remembered by future dictators who covet the territory of
others -- 85 well as by those who seek the rule of
international law.
Even after suffering an enormous military rout, Saddam
Hussein continues to act as if he believes he can outlast the
ro.00
P.3/9
SEP 18 '91 08:27AM STATE DEPT IO/IAP&PA
- 1 -
will of the international community expressed in Security
Council Resolution 687. This mandatory resolution, among
other things requires Iraq to divulge all aspects of its
programs to develop and produce nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons of mass destruction, and that these weapons,
along with ballistic missiles capable of delivering them on
innocent civilian populations throughout the Middle East, be
destroyed. Iraq must understand that it is required to do this
and that the international community will insist that it is
done.
We are entering a period of unprecedented hope for the
future of mankind. The material progress which the world has
seen throughout this century is finally being matched by
spiritual progress. The shadow of totalitarianism is being
lifted from large portions of the globe. In this regard, I
must pay special tribute to the brave people of the Soviet
Union and their legitimate leaders. By defeating an isolated
gang of coup makers who would have plunged their great nation
back into the darkness of Stalinism, the Soviet people brought
hope to oppressed people everywhere.
If the promise of this moment is to be fulfilled, however,
the U.N. must play an active and constructive role. From the
sands of the Sahara to the jungles of Central America, the U.N.
has shown itself willing to shoulder its appropriate share of
the burden in building a safer, saner world,
To translate this willingness into solid accomplishments
will, however, be difficult. We will have to broaden and
strengthen the spirit of cooperation which allowed the U.N. to
respond so effectively to Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and to
the suffering of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites after the war. We
will have to continue our efforts to reform and streamline the
U.N. bureaucracy, eliminating the waste and duplication which
have hamstrung this great organization's efforts. We will have
to weed out the anachronistic, confrontational attitudes which
continue to be common in much of the committee work of the
General Assembly and in the Specialized Agencies. Perhaps most
important, we will have to find the most capable, dedicated
individual possible to replace my good friend and respected
colleague, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar.
Before I turn to some of the more specific challenges
facing the U.N, I would like to discuss two of the more
important functions which the U.N can fulfill in helping us all
to build a safer and more just world -- peacekeeping and
electoral assistance.
PEACEKEEPING
SEP 18 '91 08:27AM STATE DEPT IO/IAP&PA
P.4/9
** 2 -
The world in the last few years has seen the increasing
value of United Nations peacekeeping operations. The number of
peacekeeping missions has grown tremendously and many of the
missions have fulfilled their mandate with startling success.
still, not every conflict situation is amenable to UN
intervention. In most instances, regional organizations should
take the lead in trying to resolve local conflicts. In this
regard, 1 pay tribute to the efforts of the EC and the CSCE to
help the Yugoslavs work out their problems. More generally,
the UN cannot become involved without the full agreement of the
parties concerned, and their unreserved commitment to a
peaceful situation,
Unfortunately, we still see conflicts in which these basic
conditions for a UN role are not met.
DEMOCRACY AND UN ELECTORAL ASSISTANCE
In recent years we have witnessed the resurgence and
strengthening of democracy on all continents. As an expression
of UN Charter values, as well as the fundamental freedoms set
forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these
transitions renew our hopes for a peaceful world.
Authoritarian governments, history shows us, are more likely to
be aggressive than democratic ones.
With sensitivity toward local needs and conditions, the UN
has demonstrated its expertise in observing elections in
various countries. Electoral assistance to Haiti made possible
an historic peaceful and democratic transfer of power.
Now we have reached a critical juncture. The United
Nations has the opportunity to further worldwide
democratization. I proposed at the 45th General Assembly to
structure more formally the UN role with respect to electoral
assistance; many share our view that electoral assistance
activities- at the request of the Member State--will become a
new UN priority.
We look forward to receiving the Secretary-General's report
on suitable approaches which will permit the organization to
respond to requests from member states for assistance in the
conduct of free and fair elections.
I would now like to turn to some of the specific issues
confronting the U.N.:
P.5/9
SEP 18 '91 08:28AM STATE DEPT IO/IAP&PA
MM 3 -
MIDDLE EAST:
We are encouraged by the growing acceptance of the idea of
an international Middle East peace conference. We hope that
all parties can come to an agreement, based on UNSC resolutions
242 and 338, that will bring peace to this strife-torn region.
IRAQ:
We are justly proud of the massive and successful response
by the u.n. to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and, later, to the
dire need of Iraqis fleeing the brutality of Saddam Hussein's
regime. I salute all those who participated in Operation
Provide Comfort. I congratulate the Secretary General and his
executive delegate Sadruddin Aga Khan for their tireless
efforts to bring relief and comfort to all vulnerable groups in
Iraq. We remind Iraq that it must comply with the resolutions
of the UNSC, and with all of its freely undertaken
obligations. Saddam Hussein should stop his efforts to deceive
and mislead his people and the UNSC. He should comply fully
and completely with the letter and spirit of UNSC res 687, and
surrender all of his weapons of mass destruction and ballistic
missiles.
The task of establishing a stable peace in the Gulf region
is, however, not yet complete. Iraq still holds Kuwaiti
citizens and it has blatantly violated the provisions of UNSC
Resolutions 687, cynically attempting to conceal and preserve
its capability to produce weapons of mass destruction and
ballistic missiles. These violations alone affirm the need to
maintain strict sanctions against the Iraqi regime. Iraq's
treatment of the Shia in the South, its failure to come to
agreement with the Kurds in the North and its willful diversion
of food from vulnerable groups throughout Iraq attest to the
need for tight UN control over any new humanitarian assistance
reaching Iraq. This control is indispensable if help is to
reach the truly needy.
In the aftermath of the Gulf crisis, the states in the
region are beginning the work of building their own
arrangements to assure the future peace and stability of their
region. We applaud their efforts and pledge to assist at their
request.
DISARMAMENT:
SEP 18 '91 08:29AM STATE DEPT IO IAP&PA
P.6/9
- 4 -
Iraq's blatant attempts to conceal from the Security
Council the true nature and extent of its programs to build
wepons of mass destruction highlight the need for stronger
measures in all areas of arms control. Both the UNSC and IAEA
need to ponder and act on the lessons from Iraq's willful
violations of its obligations under NPT and IAEA safeguards
agreement. The US supports the proposal made by UK PM Major
and Japan PM Ksifu for the creation of an international
conventional arms transfer registry, patterned after the annual
reports now made made by member states to the UN of defense
budgets. We also set great store by the efforts of the
UNGA-endorsed, Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament as it
seeks to bring to a rapid conclusion the draft comprehensive
Chemical Weapons Convention.
CYPRUS:
Under UN mediation, talks to bring about political
stability and reunify the divided island and nation of Cyprus
are beginning to bear fruit.
ASIA:
It's time for the Cambodians to end their 16 year war. The P5
plan provides a workable framework for progress. The
establishment of a viable Supreme National Council (SNC) in
Cambodia is a significant step on the path to the establishment
of a representative government. We seek continued adherence to
the framework agreed to by the Perm five.
We heartily welcome both Koreas to this Assembly. We also
welcome the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of
the Marshall Islands. We are proud that the U.S.
administration of these two former UN Trust Territories helped
them to now become member states of the UN.
LATIN AMERICA:
ONUSAL, created to oversee the forthcoming cease-fire and
monitor human rights in El Salvador, has begun its deployment.
We are confident that the UN-monitored talks between the GOES
and the FMLN will resume shortly. We salute the commitment by
the Secretary General to become personally involved in these
difficult -- but important -- negotiations. We urge both sides
to rapidly conclude work on a cease-fire agreement and on
guidelines for the reintegration of the FMLN into Salvadoran
society.
P.7/9
SEP 18 '91 08:29AM STATE DEPT IO/IAP&PA
- 5 -
AFRICA:
UNAVEM has begun monitoring the ceasefire in Angola as that
country prepares for free and fair elections. If UNAVEM
successfully carries out its mandate, it will have helped end a
bitter civil war which has brought untold suffering to an
entire generation of Angolans.
Regarding the Western Sahara, the US has, along with the
other permanent members of the Security Council as well as
other UN members, agreed to participate in MINURSO, where the
UN will prepare and conduct the referendum that will determine,
peacefully, the status of the Western Sahara. This is yet
another example where the UN has responded to a call for a
peaceful alternative to international conflict.
Having eliminated the legal basis for apartheid, South
Africa is looking to rejoin the community of nations. A strong
example of this new inclination is Pretoria's signing of the
NPT. By so doing, South Africa foreswore the possibility of
developing or owning nuclear weapons, an important step towards
the creation of a genuinely nuclear weapons free Africa. We
also welcome the progress made by all parties in South Africa
to establish a climate for negotiations leading to a
democratic, non-racial government. The UN should recognize and
encourage this process.
FOURTH COMMITTEE:
We hope that the committee on decolonisation and
non-self-governing territories will along with the rest of the
UN system reject rhetoric in favor of constructive dialog and
action. We note with particular dismay that, in contravention
of previous General Assembly resolutions, the Committee
continues to raise the issue of Puerto Rico
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
I) Salutations, greatings, reflactions
A) Memorias
B) People
6) Parez de Cuillar, NEW president; For
Joe Read
Partz de Cuellar
II) Intro: A diffarent kind of spaech
A) Past half century
1) a world defined by entimes, ideologies
2) whole people Enslaved in the rome of
fatila theories; ideologies
3/ world affairs - here 3 abroad- - charat groxy
str vggles bet/ two views
4) now, . freedom, denne, etc. have was
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
III) What now
A) Promise of a
III) Early sign of old order's demise: Trag
A) Praise V.N.
B) Praise Gorbo
c) any ril. insert larg rE: Saddoon
IV) what now?
A) A future of promise - vague ideals,
concrete struggles
8) New struggles, new 440in
Netionalism
31.
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D) Bottlegrounds new nationalisms regionalisms
trade
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
videocams
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ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
VNGA - N Hers voting posjudices
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Identify
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w/out tearing sport fabrir of
int'l society
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
resumption of history
U.S. - what's DUE rola?
America act as always has -
sample
tansion befl individualism & need for
association :- a world linked by
ties of interest 11 GATT
UNGA - facus on strangthening in
Com values - rabuild institutions
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
Seeking identity after having it blotted
out by 1/2 ( of Communion
11
Pd Cuellar
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE
final
Unwèrsal, taleological, , comprehensive,
moral, Gut to aliention
ABOARD AIR FORCE one
Insuitable Internationalism domastic
orgoing afforts lypros,Et.
Guide de Marco
Samir Shihobi
Two Chink, Paklindia , M East
Lias: Effect on credebility
MARCH 9TH 1991
The
Economist
On top of the world?
W
HAT America wrought in the Gulf
Germany can be bossed around. Such
takes time to sink in. It fought the war
unilateralists do not buy talk of coalitions:
with fearsome efficiency, shattering its enemy
85% of the troops in the Gulf, they point out,
at a tiny cost in American and allied lives. It
were American; the decision to go to war was
held together an unlikely alliance of countries
Mr Bush's; left to itself the UN would have
with skilful diplomacy in the United Nations.
tried to resolve the consequences of Iraq's ag-
Its president won support among his own
gression by sanctions alone; the Europeans
people for a war many of them had called un-
are incapable of speaking with a common
wise at the start. It righted a blatant wrong.
voice, the Japanese of making up their minds.
America did not fight Iraq to restore its own
However many allies join in, it is America that
self-confidence, but these achievements are
will have to do the confronting and disarming
bound to have that effect. They have lifted
of outlaw states. Better that it believes in its
the shadow of Vietnam and expunged the memory of Jimmy
own rightness and gets on with it.
Carter's impotence in the face of Iranian blackmail. Even the
The unilateralists will add a military argument. The
mood of economic defeatism that spread at the end of the
proven accuracy and invulnerability of laser-guided bombs,
1980s may have gone for a while. America feels on top of the
stealth fighters and map-reading cruise missiles, and the rela-
world. On top to do what?
tively few civilian casualties they seem to cause, seem to make
For America to stand high is not new. For 45 years the
the world safe for surgical war. Generals will now argue that
United States has been top nation, and for the past two years
they can pre-emptively knock out a Ruritanian mischief-mak-
its only plausible rival has been on sick leave. But that is partly
er's nuclear reactors and missile sites without killing civilians
what makes its present position so unexpected. Last year, the
or losing public support. Raids like the one on Libya will be
sudden retirement of the Soviet Union seemed set to reduce
less troublesome to arrange than UN resolutions.
America's influence by stressing economic rather than mili-
tary power, and by removing the widespread fear of commu-
Lead, but not alone
nism that had kept America out in the world. For being a
These are rash generalisations from such a particular lesson.
superpower involves more than owning nuclear weapons: it
Few of the world's villains will wear hats as black as Mr Hus-
requires a state of mind that has the will to project power.
sein's, or so obviously break international laws and standards
Now, quite suddenly, it is again clear that economic power
of common humanity. America is unlikely to find a war better
does not always outrank military power; and that the value of
suited to its fighting abilities: one on a desert plain offering no
military clout did not vanish with the ending of the cold war.
refuge to the enemy, against feeble air defences. And in any
To be a great power, economic strength is necessary but not
case the idea that war can be altogether surgical and painless
sufficient, as Japan and Germany have amply demonstrated
lies shattered on the road to Basra.
in recent months. America has proved-and the world has
America must reject unilateralism just as it must reject its
noticed-that it can project its military might abroad to se-
cousin, isolationism. Both are essentially suspicious of for-
cure its (and other people's) economic and other interests.
eigners. The truer lesson of the Gulf war is that America
Americans, meanwhile, have been reminded that not all
could not possibly have blockaded Iraq, let alone fought it,
foreign entanglements end in disaster. Not all allies are per-
without the wide support of allies. It could not have won the
fidious, not all enemies are resilient, not all weapons misfire.
support of its own Senate without the sanction of the UN Se-
Television pictures do not always lose wars, and the Soviet
curity Council. That sanction could not have been won with-
Union does not always stand in the way of what needs doing.
out the assent of the Soviet Union. The United States could
Such reminders will dispel some of the temptation to drop the
barely have afforded the battle without plentiful free oil, yen
tiresome burden of superpowerdom.
and D-marks. To defeat a country with the national product
Some are attracted, others frightened, by a caricature of
of Portugal took 75% of America's tactical aircraft and 40%
the new world order this might lead to. America thumps any
of its tanks. Some unipolar gunboat.
country that gets out of line, shakes down its rich friends to
Nor are laser-guided bombs much use as engines of eco-
pay for the mugging, gets a meek go-ahead from the cops in
nomic growth. Those who argued before the war that Amer-
the UN and tells the Soviet Union to butt out. Some such
ica was in relative decline never claimed that it was losing its
hubris is predictable. Already there are mutterings about a
military edge. The defence build-up of the 1980s and the at-
unipolar world, a new American century, and how Japan and
tention to high-technology weapons were always going to pro-
THE ECONOMIST MARCH 9TH 1991
15
LEADERS
duce results. What the "declinists" argued was that such mili-
When their friend, Mikhail Gorbachev, fell into bad con
tary prowess came at a price to the economy that would grow
pany, they chose to coax him back rather than drop him.
harder to pay unless the country reversed its decline in eco-
In the same way, Mr Bush's "new world order" is to }
nomic competitiveness. Even opponents of "decline" con-
one in which collective security (preferably with UN blessin:
ceded that it could happen unless the self-inflicted wounds of
is the goal, and America will consult its allies before actin;
the budget and trade deficits were healed. They have not been
That does not mean asking their permission. It means tryir
healed by this war, however good victory makes Americans
to persuade them that America's course of action is right b
feel. The country is still in recession and its government is still
their own standards. Mr Bush-who doubted his power t
borrowing nearly 6% of GNP to fund its budget. In such condi-
persuade-now has ample evidence of his ability to chang
tions, illusions of omnipotence will not persist.
the minds both of allies abroad and of his public at home.
The lesson of the Gulf war is not that the world is Ameri-
Four times in this conflict (sending troops in August, do
ca's plaything, but that America needs to build alliances
bling troops in November, starting an air war in January an
abroad in order to do desirable things in the world. By persua-
rejecting the Soviet half-deal in February) he did the unpopt
sion, not instruction, is how the superpower must lead. Fortu-
lar thing and saw it turn quickly popular. He could try it els
nately, this is to preach to the apparently converted. Even
where, strongly shaping a world not of might-is-right but
before the invasion of Kuwait, George Bush and James Baker
interdependence. A nationally painful success for the GAT
were alliance-builders by preference, leading only if others
talks, achieved by a judicious mixture of American arm-twis
were prepared to follow. Their approach to European security
ing and concession, would round off his first term just fin
stressed that American troops would stay only if invited to.
And the world would smile at the eagle's new confidence.
Britain's one-handed budget
UK real interest rates
3-month money
With the Treasury's monetary hand held tight by the ERM, its fiscal one can
adopt a lighter touch
1988
89
90
91
T
HE war is over; politics is back. In Britain that means
The ERM will be the unseen hand behind this month
some familiar old stuff-inflation, unemployment, poll
budget. It will also be more helpful than this newspaper woul.
tax-but with one big difference. When Saddam Hussein in-
have dared to hope just a few weeks ago. Norman Lamon
vaded Kuwait last August, Margaret Thatcher was in
the new chancellor, has been admirably firm in his insisten
Downing Street and the Conservatives were 15 points behind
that sterling will not be devalued within the ERM. Because th
Labour in the opinion polls. Now John Major is there, and
currency markets have started to believe him, he has bee
the Tories are ahead by three points. The man, more than the
able to cut interest rates twice, each time by half a point, wit.
war, has made the difference. What will he do with his lead?
out weakening the pound. There, though still only in ha:
The answer should be a little clearer after the budget on
outline, is the ERM's prize: a credible anti-inflationary polic
March 19th, and a lot clearer after the local elections on May
that brings cheaper money. Eventually, provided the pour
2nd. By then this government will have been in office for al-
holds its value against the D-mark, Britain will boast a Ge
most four years; under the unsatisfactory British system
manic inflation record and German interest rates. This sta
which gives the prime minister near-total power to choose
of grace is a long way off-the French are still not quite ther
when the people will vote, it becomes legitimate for him to use
after 12 years-but progress so far has been gratifying. Wit
that power any time in the final year of a parliament. What is
luck, the bloodcurdling predictions of slump from ERM opp
much less legitimate, and much more damaging, is to use the
nents will soon be remembered as just a clique's pique.
budget to tart up the economy for polling day.
It has been done often enough, heaven knows. In the old
Virtue's rewards
days, under Conservative and Labour alike, it was a penny off
To repeat: with luck. Though ERM membership brings th
the pint and threepence off the income tax. Even in the
promise of low inflation in the long term, in the short term
1980s, when Mrs Thatcher went once to the country with
makes it harder to manage the economy. It requires that mo
unemployment rising and once with it falling, she took care to
etary policy be devoted to holding the exchange rate. TI
ensure that, on both occasions, inflation was a (temporarily)
shifts in interest rates will sometimes help to keep nomin
virtuous 4% or SO. But note the subtle change. She fixed her
GDP growing by the 4-6% that is desirable, but that will 1
election dates to coincide with economic cheer. Her predeces-
largely by coincidence. Fiscal policy therefore ought to play
sors were more inclined, and more able, to produce such
bigger role; but the effects of changes in taxes and publ
cheer to suit the election timetable.
spending are hard to predict and slow to come through.
That old freedom has not disappeared, but it has shrunk a
Until a month ago it seemed that pound-protective mon
lot. And it was Mr Major, as chancellor, who did the shrink-
tary policy was being kept so tight that nominal GDP wou.
ing. By taking the pound into Europe's exchange-rate mecha-
slow too much. Without a big fiscal boost, a slump seem
nism last October, he did the thing that made Mrs Thatcher
inevitable. Now, barely ten days before the budget, thin
most dislike the ERM: he diminished Britain's sovereignty.
look kinder. If interest rates can safely be cut by another ha
16
THE ECONOMIST MARCH 9TH 19
90
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
that would be required to improve the lives and expand the liber.
ties of the people of the area. The choices are frequently unattrac-
tive.
The second step toward a more adequate policy is to assess
realistically the impact of various alternatives on the security of
On the Invocation of
the United States and on the safety and autonomy of the other
nations of the hemisphere.
The third step is to abandon the globalist approach which
Universal Values'
denies the realities of culture, character, geography, economics, and
history in favor of a vague, abstract universalism "stripped," in Ed-
mund Burke's words, "of every relation," standing "in all the
nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction." What must
replace it is a Moreign policy that builds (again Burke) on the
"concrete circumstances" which "give
to every political prin-
ciple its distinguishing color and discriminating effect."
Once the intellectual debris has been cleared away, it should
FORMER PRESIDENT CARTER'S EMPHASIS on human rights and his
become possible to construct a Latin American policy that will
assertion of its irreducible role in American foreign policy seem to
protect U.S. security interests and make the actual lives of actual
me a good thing, mainly because they remind us and the rest of the
people in Latin America somewhat better and somewhat freer.
world that this nation's identity and purposes are deeply involved
with the assertion of universal human rights. Totalitarian parties
and governments have so often tagged us the leading capitalist im-
perialist colonial power that we may, ourselves, find it hard to
remember that the first settlers, in fact, came seeking religious
freedom and espousing a political philosophy that linked legit-
imacy to consent. It may also be hard to remember that Americans
pioneered the development of government limited by law, popular
accountability, and natural rights.
Candidate Carter's emphasis on these themes was rewarding
to people sick to death of having their motives, characters, and
policies excoriated. For a long decade, the New Left seemed al-
most to have preempted the moral perspective on political events
-foreign and domestic-not because successive administrations
had embraced Realpolitik but because (for various reasons) our
This easay was prepared in response to former President Carter's
major human rights policy address given at the University of Notre Dame,
May 22, 1977.
91
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
On the Invocation of Universal Values
93
92
leaders preferred to explain their policies in cool rhetoric while
demonstrates the perils and problems that confront efforts to con-
critics delivered moral judgments in less measured, more excited
struct governments limited by law, based on majority rule, and
voices. One important consequence of Carter's reemphasis of
guaranteeing political competition and respect for minority rights.
human rights was to break the anti-establishment monopoly on
The less happy experiences of many nations in Latin America,
moral rhetoric. Another has been to reassure Americans and oth-
Eastern Europe, and Africa illustrate how much easier it is to
ers that U.S. policy is guided by a vision of the public good. A
establish autocracies than viable democracies. One may hope that
third important effect of the human rights campaign was to affirm
the example of freedom provided by the Western democracies will
a moral principle which needs continuing reaffirmation: that there
reinforce the human appetite for liberty, but there hardly seem to
are universal moral rights that men as men (and women as
be adequate grounds for confidence that their example will prove
women) are entitled to and that these ought to be respected by
compelling.
governments. Though aware of the pitfalls of conceiving of foreign
2. Why is the arms race "morally deplorable"? Did the Pres-
policy as a crusade, I am convinced that people and governments
ident mean that it is intrinsically immoral to spend money on
cannot live on pragmatism and profits alone-however enlightened
weapons-regardless of the context? Doesn't the moral quality of
the former or abundant the latter. It seems likely that the decreas-
an arms race depend on the consequences for specified populations
ing frequency in a political system of appeals to conscience signals
of arming or not arming?
the erosion of moral consensus and also contributes to it. Since
3. Why did the President think that "a peaceful world cannot
democracies have an especially great need for moral consensus,
exist one third rich and two thirds hungry"? The implication is that
continuing appeals to conscience are both restorative and stabiliz-
the frustration of poor nations causes war. In fact, the notion that
ing. For having recalled Americans (and others) to historic moral
poverty causes war doesn't wash. Poverty causes hardship, suffer-
imperatives and for having placed individual rights back on the
ing, and death among men, women, and children, but there is little
international agenda, former President Carter wins my applause.
evidence to support the notion that it causes war. The Second
This accomplishment seems to me more important than my mis-
World War, to take a single example, was not caused by hungry
givings about specific applications of the policy.
peoples seeking food, but by a rich country seeking living room.
It should therefore be clear that my comments on Carter's
Instead of attacking rich states, poor states fight with poor states,
Notre Dame speech do not reflect generalized disapproval of the
while rich states fight with each other. The fighting in Chad, Zaire,
administration's foreign policy. My comments are directed only to
Ethiopia, the Sahara, Angola, and Uganda (to choose some con-
that speech, which seems to me a particularly poor one. My doubts
flicts almost at random) reminds us of the many noneconomic
and puzzlements can perhaps best be expressed by way of the
causes of war. Poverty does not make poor states indifferent to
power and status, any more than wealth makes rich states indiffer-
following questions.
1. Why was the President "confident that democracies' ex-
ent to power and status. Poverty is abominable, not because it
amples will be compelling," when history so clearly establishes
leads to war, but because it perpetuates human misery. We can
that democratic governments are both rare and difficult to estab-
approach problems of war and poverty more effectively if we are
lish? It is true that developments in Portugal, Spain, and Greece
clear about the relationships between them.
testify to the continuing power of the democratic idea and il-
4. A related question: Why did the President think that "we
lustrate the possibilities of building democratic institutions on the
can no longer separate the traditional issues of war and peace from
ruins of traditional autocracies. But each of these happy cases also
the new global questions of justice, equity, and human rights"?
94
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
On the Invocation of Universal Values
95
As most wars are not caused by poverty or hunger, neither
decide that it is more important to have majority rule and minority
are they caused by breaches of "justice, equity, and human rights."
rights in southern Africa than in, say, Cuba, Cambodia, North
Why did the President assert the contrary? Was he prepared to
Korea, or the Soviet Union, or than in Chile, Paraguay, or
make observance of justice, equity, and human rights a condition
Panama?
of war and peace? Was he suggesting that this nation will or should
The very question testifies to the difficulties encountered
go to war over such matters? Or that we can achieve peace only
when a government attempts to invoke universal moral rules as the
with states whose practices meet our standards of justice, equity,
justification for a policy which will necessarily be selectively ap-
and human rights, or that the world will be at peace only if all
plied. Obviously, President Carter and his advisers should have
states achieve justice, equity, and human rights, or what?
moved beyond the invocation of universal values and general prin-
5. Why is it "important that we make progress toward nor-
ciples to the knotty business of applying them in this notoriously
malizing relations with the People's Republic of China"? Is it be-
imperfect, intractable world.
cause the President desires us to have full diplomatic relations with
all countries or with all Communist countries? And if so, why? Is
that more important than demonstrating the fidelity of our com-
mitments? How would American economic and military interests
be better served if we had an ambassador in Peking in place of a
high-level representative without the title? Does the President be-
lieve that the future of the Sino-Soviet split depends on the title of
the American emissary or that the "creative Chinese people" will
cease to trade with the United States as long as we have goods and
technology they desire?
6. Why, of all African states-or of all states in the world-
did the President decide that southern Africa is the place in which
the "time has come" for a political system based on majority rule
and minority rights? I do not doubt Carter's sincerity in advocating
a democratic system in Rhodesia, South-West Africa, and South
Africa; I do not believe that he meant "black rule" when he said
"majority rule" or that he covertly desired to replace white
oligarchies with black dictators. But if a white oligarchy does not
seem to him more obnoxious than a black dictatorship, on what
principle did the President decide that it is more important to
establish majority rule and minority rights in southern Africa than,
say, in Uganda, or Tanzania, or Zaire, or Togo, or Ghana, or
Nigeria, or Benin, or Kenya, or Guinea-Bissau, or Niger, Upper
Volta, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cama-
roons, Mozambique, or Angola? Or for that matter, how did he
116
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
Reflections on Totalitarianism
1.1.7
measures of the testers' preferences. We have watched segregation
fronted by those who argue that totalitarian ideology defies institu-
denounced as racist and reintroduced by black-power advocates.
tionalization.
We have seen enemies become allies, and allies become enemies.
This question turns on the nature of totalitarian ideology, the
We have seen intolerance on the Right largely supplanted by intol-
ingenuity and determination of totalitarian ruling elites, and the
erance on the Left.
limits of human malleability. The goals that totalitarian ideologies
With these changes in belief about the nature of reality have
postulate have some interesting characteristics already alluded to.
gone equally wide shifts in the choice and interpretation of values.
First, the goals are universal. They deal not with concrete
Within our country in this century we have seen such traditional
aspirations of concrete people, but with the presumed ends of
American values as thrift, hard work, and self-denial give way to
collectivities or trans-empirical powers, e.g., classes, races, history.
"consumer" orientations. We have seen the redefinition of patri-
Second, they are releological. They are depersonalized in the
otism, of rectitude, of national goals. With the revolution of
sense that they do not derive from the aspirations of concrete
present beliefs has gone the reevaluation of the past-of white
persons (past, present, or future) but constitute the "destiny" of
settlers, Indians, the frontier, and the American experience."
some collectivity or trans-empirical power. The ruling elite is, of
The rate of cultural change has sensitized us, too, to the range
course, merely the "midwife" or agent of these foreordained pur-
of behavior models acceptable to people. As late as 1950, the
poses. Since the purposes are grounded "in the nature of things"
Beatles or the Grateful Dead-their hair, dress, beat, lyrics, drugs,
(e.g., the laws of history, the cultural creativity of the Aryan) they
life-style-would have been quite simply incredible as behavior
are not subject to negotiation, nor influenced by human prefer-
models. From Horatio Alger to the Midnight Cowboy, from the
ences. Marx put it clearly when he said, "It is not a question of
post-Puritan capitalism of the early twentieth century to the ro-
what this or that proletarian, or even the entire proletariat, at one
mantic anarchism of the sixties, our own cultural revolution has
time or another imagines to be its goal. It is a matter of what [the
proceeded-creating cultural stereotypes, inspiring new modes of
proletariat] is, and what in accordance with that being, it will
thinking, dressing, listening, loving, politicking, in short, new ways
historically be forced to do."38
of being, and leaving in its wake the debris of past identifications
Third, the goals are final. They involve replacing flux with
and habits. Other societies in other times and places provide still
more dramatic proof of the range of human adaptability, the vari-
stability: the permanent ordering of the world, the thousand-year
ety of acceptable behavior models: the Hindu widows on funeral
Reich, the end of history. The totalitarian is not interested in
pyres, the mendicant orders, the flagellants, the sun kings, the
tinkering, in piecemeal resolution of problems, but in final solu-
slaves, the slave auctioneers, the Adolf Eichmanns, the hangmen,
tions. Final solutions resolve conflict, are the end of conflict. Order
the pacifists, the feet binders, the Inquisitors, the confessed witches
and harmony replace flux and conflict. Marx communicated this
and their accusers. Obviously, human patterns of adaptation are
sense of ultimate ordering of man and society with such descrip-
many and varied. Given the myriad ways of perceiving reality,
tions of Communism as: "It is the true resolution of the conflict
conceiving purposes, and modeling behavior, are we justified in
between existence and essence, objectification and self-affirmation,
arguing that there are limits to human malleability, that there are
freedom and necessity, individual and species."
varieties of ideology that cannot be translated into culture and
Fourth, the goals are comprehensive, involving everyone, in-
institutionalized? That is the question with which we are con-
volving all aspects of human life and society.
118
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
Reflections on Totalitarianism
119
Fifth, the goals are moral, in) the sense that they postulate the
Lenin's advocacy of the cadre party was determined and articulate.
fulfillment of man's moral mission: the end of exploitation of man
Hitler's was no less so.42
by man, the ordering of human life for the achievement of higher
Organization, they agree, is the scientific instrument for the
culture, the elimination of power as a principle of human relations.
seizure of political power. Party is crucial. Personal discipline is
The vision of a totalitarian ideologist always includes a future in
indispensable.
which the masses have been morally elevated by the revolution.
Doctrine, organization, power, redemption: this is the sci-
Totalitarian ideologues abhor the pedestrian, the personal, the
entific recipe for revolution. Totalitarians are prepared to use vio-
practical, the self-interested, the materialistic, the conflicted. They
lence to achieve the moral redemption of man and history. Hitler
seek to replace conflict with unity, flux with stability, materialism
and Lenin were explicit about the need for violence. Both deni-
with dedication to ideals, self-interest with altruism, "muddling
grated those unwilling to brandish the sword in implementation of
through" with comprehensive planning, messiness with order, poli-
the faith. Hitler wrote, "The lack of a great, creative, renewing
tics with utopia.4
idea means at all times a limitation of fighting force. Firm belief in
Sixth, they promise an end to alienation Because they iden-
the right to apply even the most brutal weapons is always bound
tify individual with collective goals and purposes, totalitarian
up with the existence of a fanatical faith in the necessity of the
ideologies are not only anti-individualist, they promise an end to
victory of a revolutionary new order on this earth."⁴⁴
disharmony among individuals and within individuals. False con-
In the speech that became famous as the "silver platter"
sciousness, isolation, anomie, separation, loneliness, purpose-
speech, Lenin commented on the same subject: "Every time I
lessness-all are defined as subjective consequences of objective
speak on this subject of proletarian government someone
social ills, therefore as capable of being eradicated through social
shouts dictator
You cannot expect
that socialism will be
engineering. All twentieth-century radical critiques deplore the loss
delivered on a silver platter
Not a single problem of the class
of individual identification with social roles and social purposes as
struggle has ever been solved in history without violence.
a curse of modern society. All promise to "solve" man's isolation
Violence when committed by the toiling masses against the ex-
and to restore him to a full sense of social membership. Peter
ploiters is the kind of violence of which we approve."45
Berger has argued that the very "essence" of totalitarianism is "the
Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that neither of these
intention of overcoming the modern dichotomy of private and pub-
theoreticians and practitioners of totalitarian revolution discusses
lic spheres." Whether or not the dicbotomy between self and
the uses of violence in the manner that each discusses many other
society is a specifically "modern" phenomenon as Berger argues or
subjects, including organization, relations with other parties and
a more persistent aspect of human experience as it seems to me,
groups, or propaganda. Neither praises violence for its effect OR
modern totalitarians share a commitment to its elimination.
the wielders in the manner of Frantz Fanon. Neither systematically
The totalitarian's methods are as distinctive as his goals. He
outlines its use in the achievement of total revolution. Both are
is, as we have seen, distinguished from other utopians by his
relatively silent on the means to the desired ends.
willingness-no, his determination-to use state power to achieve
Lenin's neglect of how political power can be used to trans-
these goals. "Scientific" socialists are those that organize and use
form society, culture, and personality is probably explained by his
power to achieve their goals. They understand, even if most of the
economic determinism. There is good reason to think that the old
rest of us do not, that revolutions are made by revolutionaries
Bolsheviks literally believed that once the structure of ownership
welded into tight, purposeful organizations of dedicated zealots.
had been altered, the transformation of society, culture, and per-
120
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
Reflections on Totalitarianism
12 1
sonality would follow promptly and automatically. The policies
underestimate human orneriness turn to terror when persuasion
of the War Communism period, when men, women, and children
and automatic adjustment fail. Robespierre and his fellow zealots,
were liberated from traditional institutional restraints-of family,
Cromwell's fanatical lieutenants, the old Bolsheviks, and Adolf
school, prison, factory, office-suggest colossal misunderstanding
Hitler-all progressively widened the scope of coercion as it be-
of the power of habit and the persistence of culture, and a touching
came clear that it was easier to destroy a ruling class than a
faith in their own interpretations. Like Marx, they had predicted
dominant culture. For each, imprisonment, torture, execution, and
the human and cultural revolution without planning for it. But as
terror became symbols of "liberation." That totalitarian ideologues
was his wont, when Lenin was confronted with the practical prob-
should prove ruthless in their determination to force reform, merci-
lem of the persistence of old patterns, he reacted with flexibility,
less in use of force to accomplish their ends, should not surprise
ingenuity, and with few inhibitions about using force to accom-
us. After all, their contempt for the corrupt, petty, materialistic
plish with power what the automatic working of the laws of eco-
slobs of the existing society has been, in each case, clearly stated.
nomic materialism failed to do.
Their moral claim, it should be remembered, derived not from
Totalitarian ideologues share a general tendency to under-
respect for actual men, but from their contemplation of the gap
estimate the difficulties of achieving social and cultural character
between what men are and what they might become.
change. The reason doubtless lies in their original assumption that
But it seems clear that even when they possess the coercive
the observed imperfections of man are the result of bad institu-
power of government and wield it in the service of their "moral"
tions. If, as Marx suggested, the economic system is the root of
vision, the odds are against the totalitarians achieving the desired
evil, then it is only necessary to reorder it to abolish evil. If, as
revolution of society, culture, and personality. Totalitarian revolu-
Fanon suggested, the political order is the root of all evil, then it is
tionaries never start from scratch, but always from an existing
only necessary to reorder it to abolish evil. Just a little violence
society with its existing culture and human types. The revolution-
will eradicate the accumulated resentments.
aries themselves have passed through the old culture and are al-
The possibility that institutions reflect people as much as
ways in jeopardy of falling into the old ways of thinking and being.
people reflect institutions is never seriously entertained by the
The big problem is with their goals. Because they affirm the
totalitarian ideologue. This possibility would cast doubt on his
abstract over the concrete, the universal over the particular, the
goals, plans, and prospects; it would endanger the moral status of
ideal over the material, the social over the personal, unity over
the outrage which serves as psychological foundation for the whole
conflict, totalitarian goals require that ordinary people renounce
ideology.
the ways of thinking and being that have characterized people
All totalitarian ideologies (and many reformers) underes-
known to human history and achieve habitual levels of dedication
timate the power of habit. It is no accident that appreciation of the
associated till now with heroes and saints.
role of habit in sustaining society, culture, and personality is
Can any revolution bring it off? Can any such ideology be
characteristic of conservative political philosophers-of men like
transformed into culture? The question brings us face to face with
Hume, Burke, Bradley. The role of habit in human affairs carries
"human nature"-the extent to which it is biologically or, in
with it a pervasive pessimism about the practicability of blueprints
Freud's term, constitutionally determined. The question is as old
for broad reform. It breeds sensitivity to the possibility that revolu-
as political philosophy. The terms of the debate on human mal-
tion may increase the total of human misery without increasing
leability and politics have remained remarkably stable since
man's moral, intellectual, or spiritual perfection-as rulers who
Aristotle rejected Plato's blueprint for the ideal state on grounds
Reflections on Totalitarianism
123
122
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
the Berlin Wall to the Sea of Japan, from Mozambique to Mon-
that it could never work because it was based on an unrealistic
conception of man (and woman). In rejecting Plato's scheme for
golia.
But have they managed to reform human consciousness?
abolition of the family, strict regulation of sexual unions, and
Have they managed to educate Soviet citizens so that they would
absolute community of possessions, Aristotle stated with consum-
freely choose to behave according to the norms of Soviet culture if
mate clarity the basic attraction and weakness of proposals for
the constraints of coercion were removed? The answer, of course,
revolutionizing human society:
is that we do not know. Nor is there much opportunity to investi-
gate the question. We know that in Eastern Europe, Communist
Legislation such as Plato proposes may appear to wear an attrac-
leaders found it necessary to build a wall and to fortify frontiers to
tive face and to argue benevolence. The hearer receives it gladly,
keep their citizens from fleeing those nascent utopias. We know
thinking that everybody will feel towards everybody else some
that even now there are thousands of Jews in the USSR who incur
marvelous sense of fraternity-all the more as the evils now. ex-
drastic penalties for expressing a desire to emigrate. We know that
isting under ordinary forms of government (lawsuits about con-
tracts, convictions for perjury, and obsequious flatteries of the
there is a steady trickle of Soviet defectors among the small privi-
rich) are denounced as due to the absence of a system of common
leged group of entertainers and scientists allowed outside the
property. None of these evils, however, is due to the absence of
Communist bloc. We know that hundreds of thousands of Cubans
communism. They all arise from the wickedness of human
have fled each time they have had a chance. From intermittent
nature.⁴⁷
trials and sentences, samizdat, expulsions from writers' unions, and
official denunciations, from Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, Synavsky,
The debate about the malleability of human nature has
and Amlarik, we know that till now the Soviet Union has contin-
achieved special practical importance in this century, when for the
ued to produce artists, writers, and intellectuals whose ways of
first time in human history successive groups of revolutionary lead-
seeing, thinking, and valuing are unsatisfactory to the overseers of
ers determined to alter and control society, culture, and personal-
revolution. And, of course, there is that most famous failure of
ity through the purposeful use of political power have managed to
socialization: Stalin's daughter Svetlana, whose predilections for
achieve power and hold on to it long enough to influence the
religion and individual freedom must have constituted a special
socialization of successive generations. The life span of the Nazi
embarrassment to socialist psychological engineering. But we
regime was too brief to provide a test. Hitler's impact was intense
know almost nothing about the subjectivities of Soviet masses.
and devastating, yet the total time from his rise to fall was only
Public opinion polls, competitive elections, free emigration, and
other measures of individual attitudes are unavailable to the stu-
twelve years (1933-45).
But the world has already celebrated the sixtieth anniversary
dent of Soviet politics.
of the Soviet Union. Its rulers have had more than half a century
It can, in any case, be argued that despite its shorter life,
Communist China rather than the Soviet Union is a better testing
to employ formal education, habit, imitation, group pressure, mass
media, terror, and other environmental controls to bring about
ground for the achievement of totalitarian goals. At least through
internalization of new norms and new behavior patterns. During
the period of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese worked harder
their six decades in power, Bolshevik leaders have succeeded in
at the thought reform of a whole population. They were, moreover,
more innovative, more determined, more clear about the priority
developing a strong government, a military technology and
of this task for the achievement of their revolution.⁴⁸
strength that is second to none, and an empire that stretches from
DICTATORSHIPS AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
Reflections on Totalitarianism
124
125
The Cultural Revolution had no Soviet equivalent. Its
that total rulers, "once they have seized power and commenced to
denigration and rejection of traditional culture-including master-
build a totalitarian system, find themselves seriously troubled by
pieces of traditional art-contrast starkly with the Soviet and
the more utopian aspects of their ideology, as well as by the con-
Eastern European assimilation of traditional art; its massive
sequences of trying to put some of them into effect."50 But it is
campaign against intellectuals, scientists, managers, and experts
also true that the lack of quick success has not led contemporary
and its proliferation of labor universities had no Soviet parallel. By
totalitarian rulers to cease trying to remold man and to construct
preferring moral goals to industrial ones, purity to efficiency, by
and preserve a culture and institutions consistent with their ideol-
improvising new institutions for the tasks of cultural revolution, by
ogy. The rulers of contemporary Communist nations may occa-
the repeated and vigorous use of brutal overwhelming force against
sionally feel, like Lenin, that "the vital work we do is sinking in a
old ideas and habits, the rulers of Communist China attempted to
dead sea of paperwork."5 It is conceivable that some are revolted
succeed where other totalitarian rulers have failed. But the prime
by their own violence. But they have not abandoned their efforts to
example of the "new" Chinese man was only that institutionalized
stay in power and to exercise comprehensive control over society,
zealot: the Red Guard. More recently, evidence has multiplied that
culture, and personality. These efforts distinguish them from other
like other revolutionaries the Chinese too may be abandoning the
autocrats and from democrats. Because they have not abandoned
quest. The most experienced China-watchers are agreed that the
the effort, they remain monuments to the danger of mixing utopi-
crest of utopian revolution is past, that after the orgy of the Cui-
anism and power.
tural Revolution, technology, modernization, order, and efficiency
have again taken priority over the reform of culture, society, and
personality. It is always possible that improved technology, superior
knowledge of social and psychological factors, and the sophisti-
cated and uninhibited use of force will enable some ruling groups
to succeed where all other totalitarian reformers have failed. The
II. THE LANGUAGE OF
use of drugs to alter human consciousness presents interesting new
possibilities for restructuring personality and culture. But history,
DECEPTION
pockmarked with the failure of utopian communities, suggests
otherwise. Existing evidence suggests that doctrine turns out to be
more malleable than human nature, that conformity to totalitarian
COMMUNIST PARTIES which we carelessly call Communism,
behavior models is easier to secure than conversion, that the
achieve political power\through political contests. This fact, which
"new" morality turns out to be more effective in coercing than
appears almost to be a tautology, is repeatedly, and in some cases
liberating, and that the "new" rulers bear 8 remarkable and dis-
systematically, overlooked and obscured. Its implications are of
couraging resemblance to the old tyrants.
extreme importance. To assert that Communists achieve power by
In considering whether it is possible that a totalitarian state
competition at the political level implies, first, that they are not
can be stable and enduring, it is clear, as Carl Friedrich pointed
swept into power on the tides of historical inevitability; second,
out, that "totalitarian dictatorship, like other political phenomena,
that except where they gain control through military occupation,
is a relative rather than an absolute category."69 It is clear, too,
the success of Communist parties is determined by the political
sort -- the kind that pits nation against nation, splinters
societies, scorns compromise and fans conflict.
This threat comes when leaders focus pent-up energies not on
the urgent business of building a new society, dedicated to
democracy -- but on the settling of old scores; when nations use
their new-found freedom not to secure peace, but to feed rage,
revenge and anger.
The nations of the world are not defenseless against this
threat. Our bulwark remains democracy.
Now, with the ascendancy of the democratic idea -- with the
prospect of a new world within our reach
[ere.]
Democracy means far more than simply the rule of the
majority. It means the safequarding of minority rights -- it
means the sanctity of even a single individual against the
unchecked power of the state.
For the sake of true democracy, the nations of the world
must work together in the name of human rights. / For the sake
of true democracy, we must resolve to uphold the rule of law --
so that majority will never degenerates into majority whim. /
Yes, we must join forces when need be, as we did in Desert Storm
-- to defend sovereignty, and defeat the forces of aggression.
But for the sake of true democracy, we must be equally vigilant
against the forces that destroy nations from within -- and pull
their neighbors into a vortex of violence. 11
# # #
conapse after the fall of
the Kuwaitis' continuing support. Af-
We should have made ratification
unstable nonelected leaders. Granted,
ter all, who knows if the Emir will be
of this defense agreement by such an
Kuwait's Emir is not the Shah. This
in power in 10 years? While the Ku-
institution a condition for implemen-
agreement does have genuine
waiti Cabinet has approved the
tation. Having failed to do so, we
support among the Kuwaitis. Our em-
agreement, it is not enough to have
should now follow the agreement with
bassy in Kuwait probably is our only
such an accord ratified by an appoint-
a proper treaty that is openly debated
third world outpost splattered with
ed Cabinet, half of whose members
and ultimately ratified by elected leg-
pro-American graffiti. Our forces
also belong to the Emir's family.
islatures in both countries.
were welcomed by Kuwaitis, who de-
We need something more durable.
To that end, we must encourage our
spised the Iraqi occupation. Our pres-
We need to legitimize our continuing
ally, the Emir of Kuwait, to hold
ence is still welcome, but will it con-
presence with the Kuwaiti people, not
elections in order to convene such a
tinue to be?
just their ruler, and we need a mecha-
body, as his own citizens demand.
Fortunately, there is a way to
nism for assessing the continuing
The 10-year agreement we have
know. For most of its independent
popularity of that presence.
The 1991 Innova
signed involves a commitment of U.S.
history, Kuwait has had an elected
We should make a democratically
in State and Local
resources. Under it, the U.S. will pre-
National Assembly, albeit one with
approved treaty - publically debat-
position military equipment, conduct
limited suffrage (adult male nation-
ed, popularly sanctioned - the basis
Government Awar
joint military exercises with Kuwaiti
als) and responsibilities. The Emir
of our presence in Kuwait, and we
Winners
dissolved that assembly in 1986 and
should make that kind of treaty the
Jill Crystal teaches political science
has not reconstituted it, despite popu-
ideal toward which we work in the
at the University of Michigan.
lar demands to do so demands that
other gulf states.
Ten Shining Exam
of Government At
Its Best
Foreign Affairs
LESLIE H. GELB
Why the U.N. Dog Didn't Bark
Why didn't world leaders and diplo-
any doubts about his meaning must
mats applaud President Bush's
Mr. Bush's
have been removed when he made
speech to the U.N. on Monday? Was-
clear that economic sanctions against
n't he finally shelving stale cold war
rhetoric and moving on to the new
incendiary theme.
Iraq would remain in force as long as
Saddam Hussein "remains in pow-
agenda in world politics - freedom,
er." His stated aim was not simply to
democracy and economic progress -
roll back Iraqi aggression against
the agenda so long so dear to U.N.
Kuwait, but to eliminate an undesir-
members?
bers wish U.N. interference in the
able regime.
It may be because of a revolution-
internal affairs of states to end right
Mr. Bush was declaring for natural
ary message about humanitarian in-
there, with Israel. Full stop. But what
law, for "inalienable human rights"
tervention barely audible throughout
Mr. Bush was sometimes saying and
above the laws of states. He was
the text, a message nonetheless
sometimes hinting was that he would
telling his worried listeners that now
sensed by representatives of despots
go much further - to question and
is the time for the U.N. "to resume
and democracies alike that fright-
attack the centuries-old notion of sov-
the important business of promoting
ened all with its implications seem-
ereignty that permits states to do
the values that I've discussed today."
ingly even Mr. Bush by the time he
what they will with their own people
What could be more revolutionary,
finished.
within established borders.
more threatening to the regimes that
This explanation seems plausible
When he spoke of "collective settle-
inhabit the U.N.? But who would de-
because otherwise the U.N. dog
ment of disputes," he was talking not
cide when states offended natural
should have barked at the sound of
only of joint action against external
rights? The U.N.? The U.S.? And who
Mr. Bush's kindly words. His speech,
aggression but of "international co-
would intervene to protect the op-
after all, met the usual standards. It
operation" against internal feuds and
pressed, and how?
was general, pious, uncontaminated
injustices. That could apply to most
Perhaps Bush speechwriters chose
by specifics and delivered in the flac-
U.N. member states where freedom
this challenging rhetoric without un-
cid manner proven to animate diplo-
and democracy are concepts to be
derstanding its full implications. In
matic ovations.
debated only at international confer-
any event, in the last-minute scram-
True, Mr. Bush didn't promise to
ences far from home. Try China or
ble over the draft, someone - per-
pay the hundreds of millions in back
Syria for starters.
haps Mr. Bush - must have glimpsed
U.S. dues, and nobody likes rich dead-
Referring to "nationalist pas-
the nearing philosophical precipice.
beats. Granted, he also failed to pro-
sions," Mr. Bush went on to say that
For at the end the text veered unex-
vide the obligatory five-point plan to
no one can "promise that today's
pectedly off in a contradictory and
resuscitate U.N. machinery.
borders will remain fixed. " This
reassuring direction. Mr. Bush said
A more grievous Bush error, to
must have been like a stake in the
the U.N. "should not dictate the par-
many U.N. members, was to propose
heart of most attendees. To begin
ticular forms of government" for na-
that the U.N. rescind its resolution
with, think of Yugoslavia and Tibet,
tions, and that in his "new world
condemning Zionism as a form of
Spain and its Basque separatists,
order" no nation "must surrender
racism. Most member states (unfa-
most African states or India.
one iota of its own sovereignty. "
miliar as they are with ill treatment
"Despots ignore the heartening
The speech ended about there.
of their citizenry) were upset at the
fact that the rest of the world is
Leaders and delegates applauded po-
thought of lifting just about the only
embarked upon a new age of liberty,"
litely and respectfully. But they did
moral judgment they could ever
Mr. Bush proclaimed. If he had
not like what they thought they had
agree upon.
stopped there, his listeners might
heard, nor the debate it may in-
It would seem that most U.N. mem-
have shrugged off the rhetoric. But
spire.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
9/18
DATE:
NOTE FOR:
CHRISS WINSTON
DAN MCGROARTY
The President has reviewed the attached, and it is forwarded to
you for your:
information
action
Thank you.
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
(x-2702)
cc:
THE WHITE HOUSE
DM
WASHINGTON
DM-Chri See below and
September 15, 1989
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH: CHRISS WINSTON cw
FROM:
DANIEL McGROARTY
864
SUBJECT: UN SPEECH -- PERSONAL REMINISCENCES
As the first former UN Ambassador to address the General
Assembly as President, your reminiscences of your days in the UN
offer a unique opportunity in your upcoming UN speech.
Brief mention of your recollections at the beginning of your
speech would lend a personal tone -- and at the same time
establish that you speak as one who knows the UN from the inside.
We would appreciate whatever recollections you could provide
regarding your thoughts as you sat in the General Assembly at the
opening of the 26th Session 18 years ago, your impressions as a
new Ambassador on the responsibilities of your assignment, on the
opportunities or potential of the UN, etc.
You may be interested to know that eight of the current UN
ambassadors served in the same capacity during your
ambassadorship in 1971-1973.
1. Be sure we get the proper formal salutation in the very beginning.
Jospeh Reed can help or UN protocol
But we must properly salute
teh Sec. general and the Pres. of the General Assembly.
Might mention the names of the perm reps who were there when I was.
also the fact that so many perm reps go on to leasd their countries.
Excuse the persoanl reminiscing but this in a sense is like coming home."
As in one's school days one makes fast friends here- friendships that
cut across political boundaires:"
"Under our able Sec General the uN is widely recognized as having
a renewed role in the import area of Peacekeepuing. I salute
the efforts of our able Sec General. IIII 9check this with Brent)
Find a subtle way to tease , not ridicule, the length of the speeches
Possible:
I'l lnever forget one meeting of the Security Council. I was US Perm Rep. I was
45 minutes late gettign to the meeting. One speaker had been going
on and on for the full 45 minutes. He saw me walk in and take
the uS seat at the table. He stopped his remarks and said" Oh I am
so glad trh3e Us Perm Rep. could join us. And now for his benefit I
will start over. The graon that went up from the room. tansceneded
idealogical lines, historic alliances, regional differences
The whole place groaned in unison and the laughtrer broke out
I wil ltry not to compete with his record breaking oratory. ""etc etc
Possible- Im not hooked on it.
Friendships are formed here; Genuine Understanding is Enhanced
Here; a Genuine sense of service prevails here- from the security
people, the people who weork in the Delegates Lounge, those who work in the
dining room, run the elevators, there is a UN spirit a spirit of
fraternity and that is good.
39 SEP18 P12
24 / Representing America
The
He said, "All right, Molotov will go." Molotov then whispered in
Andrew Young was in ch
his ear, which I couldn't fully hear, but said something to the effect
leading the American delegat
of, "Oh, I can't go, I have other engagements." Stalin said, "Molotov
ment. He was so busy doing (
will go," and brushed him aside. That's how Molotov got to the
much attention to this subc
United Nations.
everything that went on in t
I had sought to carry out Roosevelt's policy objectives. I thought,
representatives. I recognized
of course, in carrying out those objectives, that it was very important
was very fond of him and
for the Russians to be there and to have their first team. I didn't
take. But I don't remember
think Mr. Molotov was the most cooperative man in the world, and
deny that. I hope he finally di
in some ways, I believed much more could have been accomplished
I have always been a stro:
with Vishinsky, who was very clever. But as far as the objectives of
feel we ought to give it our
the United Nations were concerned at that time, I was very much in
continue to have an influenti
support of them.
using every opportunity that
Truman was also very anxious to carry out Roosevelt's ideas. I
the United Nations and encc
saw him when I came back from Moscow. He said, "I want to know
we have to recognize that th
everything that Roosevelt felt on the issues that are coming up in the
was started. That has probably
United Nations." He said, "It was Roosevelt that was elected presi-
dent. I wasn't, so I must find out what the Roosevelt ideas are and
carry them out." Of course, when he got reelected, he was very much
himself and Truman put a stamp on the American political scene in
his own right. But in his earliest days, he was very anxious to fully
carry out Roosevelt's programs. Of course, he continued to carry
them out,
the New Deal and that sort of thing, because he be-
lieved in them. But in the early days, it was in order to make sure he
carried out what was in Roosevelt's mind. There was a certain unity
of purpose between Roosevelt and Truman. I think the time [periods]
that the two men served as president will be joined together as one
period in our history.
It's a great tragedy that the American people haven't been
brought to respect the UN more closely. It is very important to have
men and women of stature representing the United States at the
United Nations. They carry weight with the public as well as with the
UN delegates from other countries. I'm not against the bureaucrats in
the United Nations, but some important personalities contribute
especially effectively. I think George Bush, for example, is one of the
very important personalities in the American political scene today. I
knew his father intimately; he was my partner. Anything George
Bush did I was very respectful of. I hope someday he will be presi-
dent when we have to have a Republican.
The Kennedy-Johnson Years, 1961-68 /
77
his commitment to peace and his
Frelinghuysen. The delegation to the General Assembly included
nalism, Stevenson seems never to
Eleanor Roosevelt, Carl Rowan, Marietta Tree, Jane Warner Dick,
er Kennedy or Johnson.
Sidney Yates, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (for International
or lawyer, was a highly skilled
Organization Affairs) Richard Gardner, William P. Rogers (later
Γ. In his three years (1965-68) as
secretary of state under Richard Nixon), Patricia Roberts Harris,
ed resolve the Article 19 crisis
Harding Bancroft, Robert Benjamin (of Orion Pictures) and Jean
an and India; advanced efforts to
Picker of the UN Association of the United States.
southern Africa; was instrumental
nproliferation treaties to reality
he Middle East; and helped gain
SOURCES
le U.S.S. Pueblo, which had been
On the Cold War, see John Stoessinger, The United Nations and the Superpowers
was followed briefly, during the
(New York: Random House, 1965, 1970). For the Congo, see Roger Hilsman,
tration, by George Ball, a veteran
To Move a Nation (New York: Dell, 1964). General information about the
United Nations and the U.S. Mission during this period may be found in Every-
rles Russell Wiggins, editor of the
man's United Nations (New York: UN Office of Public Information, 1968);
Thomas Hovet, A Chronology and Fact Book of the United Nations, 1941-1979
the United Nations was expanded
(Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceania, 1979); Richard Hiscocks, The Security Council
e rank of ambassador: Francis
(New York: Free Press, 1973); U.S. Participation in the U.N. (Washington, D.C.:
tevenson, was appointed deputy
Department of State, 1946-68); and Seymour Maxwell Finger, Your Man at
); Charles Yost, a career diplomat
the UN (New York: New York University Press, 1980).
ne Security Council (the number
ecame the representative on the
e number-four spot). Jonathan
he representative on the Trustee
st black appointed representative
Tree became the first woman to
ntative on the Trusteeship Coun-
ent representative in 1965, a new
1. Goldberg favored career diplo-
reflected in the appointment of
ffum to that post. James Roose-
erved as representative on the
53 General Assembly, Secretary
E the U.S. delegation. Among the
years were Senators Albert Gore,
:
Symington, and John Sherman
uerite Stitt Church and Peter
146 / Representing America
Security Council, and later as deputy representative under George
Bush; W. Tapley Bennett served in the number-three spot in 1971-
73, and as deputy representative during 1973-77; and William E.
Schaufele served as deputy representative on the Security Council
in 1973-75.
The congressional delegates included Senators Jacob Javits,
Claiborne Pell, Gale McGee, Charles Percy, Stuart Symington, and
George McGovern; Representatives Dante Fascell, John H. Buchanan,
CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS
Jr., and Donald Fraser. Among the public delegates were Shirley
the Security Council, 1969;
Temple Black, Rita Hauser, Daniel Moynihan, Alan B. Shepard,
United Nations, 1970-73.
Margaret B. Young, and William F. Buckley, Jr.
I think generally the UN is
the Soviet Union and perh
SOURCES
You could also exclude Fr.
with a good deal of cynic
Netherlands, and many of 1
General information about the United Nations and the U.S. Mission during this
ever its shortcomings, the
period may be found in Everyone's United Nations (New York: UN Office of
effective.
Public Information, 1979); U.N. Annual Yearbook (New York: United Nations,
1970-78); Issues Before the General Assembly of the United Nations (New
After stints in the Air Force and
York: UN Association of the United States, 1970-78); Thomas Hovet, A Chro-
was elected to the Massachuset
nology and Fact Book of the United Nations, 1941-1979 (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.:
Eisenhower's 1952 presidential
Oceania, 1979); U.S. Participation in the U.N. (Washington, D.C.: Department
in 1953 when he was named sp
of State, 1969-76); and Seymour Maxwell Finger, Your Man At The UN (New
for UN affairs. "I have always 1
York: New York University Press, 1980). Also useful on specific issues are
"In fact, I was born in an Ame
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (with Suzanne Weaver), A Dangerous Place (New York:
for forty years my father was a
Berkley, 1980), and William F. Buckley, Jr., U.N. Journal (New York: Putnam,
as assistant to Robert Murphy
1974).
organizing a local United World
"This was just after the war an
national affairs. We felt somehc
later became deputy assistant
affairs, but he left that post tc
Commission (1957). In 1958,
Economic and Social Council.
When the Kennedy admir
Manhattan Bank as manager of
adviser on international affairs.
of the International Chamber (
international economic affairs.
In 1969 Phillips joined the
tive to the Security Council (1
to the United Nations (1970-7
served under Charles Yost an
representative under George
è number-three spot in 1971-
ing 1973-77; and William E.
tive on the Security Council
ided Senators Jacob Javits,
'ercy, Stuart Symington, and
te Fascell, John H. Buchanan,
CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS: Deputy Permanent Representative on
public delegates were Shirley
the Security Council, 1969; Deputy Permanent Representative to the
Moynihan, Alan B. Shepard,
United Nations, 1970-73.
kley, Jr.
I think generally the UN is taken seriously, except by such countries as
the Soviet Union and perhaps China, which is still not very involved.
You could also exclude France, which has tended to look at the UN
with a good deal of cynicism. But the Scandinavian countries, the
Netherlands, and many of the smaller nations really believe that what-
S and the U.S. Mission during this
ever its shortcomings, the UN should be supported and made more
Nations (New York: UN Office of
book (New York: United Nations,
effective.
bly of the United Nations (New
After stints in the Air Force and as a newspaper reporter, Christopher H. Phillips
970-78); Thomas Hovet, A Chro-
was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1948. An active supporter of
1941-1979 (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Eisenhower's 1952 presidential campaign, Phillips began his foreign-affairs career
I. (Washington, D.C.: Department
in 1953 when he was named special assistant to the assistant secretary of state
nger, Your Man At The UN (New
for UN affairs. "I have always had a deep interest in foreign affairs," he notes.
Also useful on specific issues are
r), A Dangerous Place (New York:
"In fact, I was born in an American embassy overseas (in the Netherlands), and
U.N. Journal (New York: Putnam,
for forty years my father was a career diplomat." Phillips accepted the position
as assistant to Robert Murphy. "At that time I also had been quite active in
organizing a local United World Federalist chapter in Massachusetts," he recalls.
"This was just after the war and many of us
were very idealistic about inter-
national affairs. We felt somehow we could change things for the better." Phillips
later became deputy assistant secretary of state for international-organization
affairs, but he left that post to become vice chairman of the U.S. Civil Service
Commission (1957). In 1958, he was appointed U.S. representative to the UN
Economic and Social Council.
When the Kennedy administration took office, Phillips joined the Chase
Manhattan Bank as manager of its Canadian division and as David Rockefeller's
adviser on international affairs. In 1965 he became president of the U.S. Council
of the International Chamber of Commerce, where he maintained his interest in
international economic affairs.
In 1969 Phillips joined the Nixon administration as deputy U.S. representa-
tive to the Security Council (1969-70) and then became deputy representative
to the United Nations (1970-73)-both posts having the rank of ambassador. He
served under Charles Yost and then George Bush. In 1973 Phillips left the
147
148 / Representing America
United Nations to become president of the newly created National Council for
surprise announcement of
U.S.-China Trade. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the
of us had any advance kn
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF,
lieve even George Bush di
as well as a director of the UN Association of the United States.
closely to prevent any pren
From that point on, ol
We at the mission did feel
One of my early assignments at the UN concerned the seating of
had a fighting chance but
Communist China in the UN. Originally, American policy recognized
lieved that if we could ge
only the Republic of China [Taiwan] as the government of China.
vote, we could make it. J
During the earlier years, because the UN's membership was much
also had some of the La
smaller, our policy of supporting the seating of the Republic of
worked closely with us, to
China was relatively easy to maintain. But by the late 1960s, things
In Europe, of course, it d:
clearly began to change-if I may say so, somewhat belatedly.
us, but at the last minut
I think the first visible evidence of a shift in our policy was
surprises. The Belgian aml
reflected in a speech that I gave before the General Assembly in the
before the vote, that he h
fall of 1970. That was the first time that an official of the United
from supporting us to abs
States in a UN body referred to what we used to call Communist
support the last two or t
China as the "People's Republic of China." The speech was played
different regional caucus
up in the front pages of many papers and it was interpreted as the
positions, and in cooperat
beginning of a shift.
But when we got right do
By that time Washington was beginning to think in terms of a
lar, the night of the vote,
policy, which we always denied was a two-China policy, but which
One of the key tact
had many of the characteristics of a two-China policy. We hoped
evening of the day on
that we could maintain a seat for Taiwan in the General Assembly,
close to the dinner hou
while admitting the PRC into the Security Council as well as the
Baroody of Saudi Arabia
General Assembly. We finessed the question as to precisely which
mentarians in the UN), to
entity would be China. It would presumably still be the Republic
for dinner. We fought tha
of China, but since Peking's delegation would have been seated in
those delegations left the
the Security Council, this would have given them a status which most
come back; the votes We
other members would have accepted as the official delegation of
afford to lose one. We W
China.
and at that point I thinl
We waged a long and strenuous campaign to try to achieve both
when the General Assem
of these objectives. We said we were in favor of the admission of the
of our key votes were ]
PRC but we wished to retain a seat in the General Assembly for the
show up and could not
Republic of China. We felt at the mission that we had a better than
had gotten to them, and
50-50 chance of succeeding because we had mobilized substantial
absent themselves. So W
support through careful preparation-a lot of hard work and exten-
but clearly Washington's
sive consultation with other delegations. But what probably pulled
hopes we had of succeedi
the rug out from under our efforts more than anything else was the
The Nixon-Ford Years, 1969-76 / 149
newly created National Council for
surprise announcement of Henry Kissinger's visit to Peking. None
Council on Foreign Relations, the
of us had any advance knowledge of this development; I don't be-
d the U.S. Committee for UNICEF
the United States.
lieve even George Bush did. I think the whole thing was held very
closely to prevent any premature leaks.
From that point on, our position clearly began to be in trouble.
We at the mission did feel, just a few weeks before the vote, that we
UN concerned the seating of
had a fighting chance but that it would be very, very close. We be-
y, American policy recognized
lieved that if we could get all of our [supporters] on the floor to
as the government of China
vote, we could make it. Japan worked very closely with us and we
UN's membership was much
also had some of the Latin American countries. The Philippines
e seating of the Republic of
worked closely with us, too, as did Thailand, but not the Indonesians.
But by the late 1960s, things
In Europe, of course, it differed. In the beginning, Belgium was with
, somewhat belatedly.
us, but at the last minute there was again one of those unpleasant
of a shift in our policy was
surprises. The Belgian ambassador had to inform us, a couple of days
e the General Assembly in the
before the vote, that he had received instructions to change his vote
that an official of the United
from supporting us to abstaining. We then began to see an erosion of
t we used to call Communist
support the last two or three days. We did meet regularly with the
hina." The speech was played
different regional caucuses of the countries that supported our
and it was interpreted as the
positions, and in cooperation with them, we worked out our strategy.
But when we got right down to the last day or two, and, in particu-
inning to think in terms of a
lar, the night of the vote, we were simply outmaneuvered.
two-China policy, but which
One of the key tactical decisions was taken during the early
two-China policy. We hoped
evening of the day on which the vote took place. It was getting
wan in the General Assembly,
close to the dinner hour. A well-known UN figure, Ambassador
curity Council as well as the
Baroody of Saudi Arabia (one of the cleverest tacticians and parlia-
uestion as to precisely which
mentarians in the UN), took the floor and proposed an adjournment
umably still be the Republic
for dinner. We fought that hard because we knew that the minute all
n would have been seated in
those delegations left the floor and went to dinner, some wouldn't
iven them a status which most
come back; the votes were so close at that point that we couldn't
as the official delegation of
afford to lose one. We were defeated on the vote for adjournment,
and at that point I think most of us felt the game was up. Indeed,
npaign to try to achieve both
when the General Assembly reassembled an hour or so later, several
favor of the admission of the
of our key votes were missing; some small delegations just didn't
the General Assembly for the
show up and could not be found anywhere. I think the other side
ion that we had a better than
had gotten to them, and to avoid embarrassment, they decided to
we had mobilized substantial
absent themselves. So we lost. The U.S. Mission had done its best,
lot of hard work and exten-
but clearly Washington's decision to go ahead as it did undercut any
is. But what probably pulled
hopes we had of succeeding.
re than anything else was the
FROM A BOOK CALLED REPRESENTING AMERICA.
DIFFERENT CHAPTERS FROM DIFFERENT USUN
AMBASSADORS
mission was one of the great
GEORGE BUSH Permanent Representative and Chief of the U.S.
forget my French colleague,
Mission to the United Nations, 1971-72.
had drafted the Universal
L towering intellect, and when
During my early days in politics, I was highly critical of the UN. I felt
iends because I speak French
it was falling short of its promise from the late '40s. I saw it become
n France]. He sat on what is
increasingly unable to be useful in its peacekeeping roles. After I served
rt. You did come across some
there, my view changed. I felt that the UN was particularly helpful in
lot of ordinary people. It was
the economic and social areas [ECOSOC]. I favored certain of the
at all. But I did come away at
multilateral efforts in the health field, food field, population field, etc.
Sometimes it is much better to use multilateral diplomacy and I saw
started optimistically. I came
that clearly after being at the UN.
about the possibilities of the
ng peace and understanding.
A former oil-industry executive and Texas Republican congressman, George
Herbert Walker Bush was named U.S. representative to the United Nations by
President Nixon in 1971. Bush cofounded and developed the Zapata Offshore
Company (1956-64), and later advanced to chairman (1964-66). Convinced
that businessmen "ought to take an interest in politics," Bush was active in Re-
publican politics in the Houston area. From 1967 to 1970 he served in the U.S.
House of Representatives. After losing a Senate race in 1970, Bush was appointed
to the UN post. His informal, energetic style, amiable personality, and access to
President Nixon won him the respect of fellow delegates. In 1971 Bush advocated
the Nixon administration's two-China policy-a compromise under which the
United States would support the admission of Communist China while calling
for the continued membership of Taiwan. Although Bush tried to win sufficient
support for the compromise, the assembly voted to expel Taiwan.
In 1972 he left the United Nations to become chairman of the Republican
National Committee; in 1974 President Ford named him head of the U.S.
Liaison Office in China. Two years later, he became director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, where he instituted structural and procedural reforms.
Considered a potential running mate for Nixon and later for Ford, Bush decided
to wage his own presidential campaign for 1980. He then became Ronald Reagan's
vice-presidential nominee on the Republicans' successful ticket against Carter
and Mondale. AND THEN
I felt [after serving there] that the UN was an extremely useful place
at which to conduct bilateral diplomacy. It's a fantastic place for
meeting future world leaders-getting to know them on a friendship
can
basis. As vice president, I continually run into people from all over
you
the world with whom I served at the United Nations.
that
It also found the UN to be frustrating in some ways-the attacks
on the United States, and so on. The UN passed a lot of irrelevant
169
170 / Representing America
resolutions, and I think that diminished its effectiveness. There's
the war between India an
an awful lot of rhetorical overkill at the UN. In the General Assem-
macy on that one was cor
bly, the debates were often not real debates, [with] no real give
I believe strongly in 1
and take, as in giving a speech and [having] someone exercising a
or multilateral diplomacy
right to reply, for example. But it still was a worthwhile forum in
above going to the small
which to vent one's frustrations or one's desires or one's goals.
from smaller countries, V
In securing support of U.S. policies, our home mission worked
countries' representatives
the diplomatic circuit very, very hard. We had excellent political
their positions, and if yo
officers, we contacted everyone-no mission was too small. I, as
can get the benefit of the
ambassador, would not hesitate to go to a small African country's
of course, and it's certain
representative. The UN job is much more than making speeches and
work, and in addition, i
7
posturing. To be really effective in terms of securing votes, you
United States is seen thr
have to get out and work at it. I liked that part of the job; I liked
tries. I am not naive eno
the politics of the UN.
change their fundamental
In terms of cooperation or disagreement with the Western allies,
For the permanent r
generally speaking, we had very close relations and stayed together
It's the perception more
on most of the important questions. There were of course exceptions.
ship between the U.S. p
As for the Soviet Union, we had many differences, and they're on
is an important compo
the record. I got along with Ambassador Malik of the Soviet Union
General U Thant and S
and made it a point to work with him. But our differences were pro-
ships do matter a great C
nounced on most political issues.
friction or if there is in
As to the Group of 77, I became frustrated at group positions
secretary of state are of
that I knew individual members did not support. But again, we had
his instructions through
to work on various questions to get the support of different mem-
shall decree. And thus b
bers in the group.
tions with the secretary
As to the tenor of the times, the biggest questions in the political
sometimes conflicting sig
field were the India/Pakistan War, the Taiwan question-entry of
rep to the UN does a bal
China into the United Nations-and certain events in the Middle East.
The UN's greatest st
The principal challenge did relate to the Chinese-representation ques-
tives, and its greatest W
tion. Ours was not a two-China proposal in the technicalities of the
peace to troubled situa
proposal. There was a dual-representation proposal which was termed
are involved.
"two Chinas" by some. There is a distinction, given the fact that
both Taiwan and Peking consider that there is one China. Given the
new U.S. opening to China at the time of the UN debate, it was
extraordinarily difficult to keep out votes-votes that had been com-
mitted to the dual-representation position. The issue was extraor-
dinarily emotional, but when it was over, the United States properly
shifted gears and, in the UN context, dealt with the realities at hand.
In terms of tilting toward Pakistan, the U.S. position is on the
record there at the UN. We used our best efforts to try to help stop
The Nixon-Ford Years, 1969-76 / 171
ished its effectiveness. There's
the war between India and Pakistan. But most of the bilateral diplo-
the UN. In the General Assem-
macy on that one was conducted by Dr. Kissinger in Washington.
al debates, [with] no real give
I believe strongly in personal relationships in bilateral diplomacy.
[having] someone exercising a
or multilateral diplomacy. I think the United States should not be
still was a worthwhile forum in
above going to the smaller embassies, meeting with the ambassadors
e's desires or one's goals.
from smaller countries, working with the regional groups, etc. Some
icies, our home mission worked
countries' representatives at the UN have considerable flexibility in
ard. We had excellent political
their positions, and if you have a personal relationship, you find you
) mission was too small. I, as
can get the benefit of the doubt on certain issues. It's not always true,
go to a small African country's
of course, and it's certainly not true with the big powers. But it does
more than making speeches and
work, and in addition, it is important that the human side of the
1 terms of securing votes, you
United States is seen through the eyes of diplomats from other coun-
ked that part of the job; I liked
tries. I am not naive enough, however, to believe that people would
change their fundamental convictions based on personal relationships.
reement with the Western allies,
For the permanent rep, access to the White House is important.
se relations and stayed together
It's the perception more than the reality, in my view. The relation-
There were of course exceptions.
ship between the U.S. perm rep and the secretary general of the UN
any differences, and they're on
is an important component. I had many meetings with Secretary
sador Malik of the Soviet Union
General U Thant and Secretary General Waldheim. These relation-
m. But our differences were pro-
ships do matter a great deal. Word spreads through the UN if there is
friction or if there is indeed compatibility. The relations with the
me frustrated at group positions
secretary of state are of course important. The UN ambassador gets
not support. But again, we had
his instructions through the secretary of state, or as the president
t the support of different mem-
shall decree. And thus both the access to the White House and rela-
tions with the secretary of state are important. It's not always easy-
biggest questions in the political
sometimes conflicting signals come forth, and it is then that the perm
the Taiwan question-entry of
rep to the UN does a balancing act.
certain events in the Middle East.
The UN's greatest strength lies in the economic and social objec-
the Chinese-representation ques-
tives, and its greatest weakness lies in its inability to bring instant
posal in the technicalities of the
peace to troubled situations-particularly when the larger powers
ation proposal which was termed
are involved.
distinction, given the fact that
at there is one China. Given the
time of the UN debate, it was
votes-votes that had been com-
position. The issue was extraor-
over, the United States properly
t, dealt with the realities at hand.
stan, the U.S. position is on the
ir best efforts to try to help stop
W. TAPLEY BENNETT, JR.: Deputy Permanent Representative on
some of the more com:
the Security Council, 1971-72; and Deputy Permanent Representa-
home. Then the Algerian
would tyrannize some of
tive to the United Nations, 1973-76.
one year-and I don't th
when in many ways the
We should treat nations fairly and even generously, but, at the same
was Algeria: more than 01
time, defend our own rights. I think we have to stand up for what we
the British, just because t
believe, and should expect other people to understand our concerns
even as we try to understand theirs. I believe in a perfectly honest
and used it. And they W
approach.
mentary rulings-not heari
In 1976 we had the
Dubbed the "dean of U.S. diplomats" by the New York Times when he retired
tinental shelf] between (
from the Foreign Service in 1983, W. Tapley Bennett, Jr., has had a long and
of my major accomplishn
active career as a diplomat, with assignments in Latin America, Europe, and the
for weeks. We finally got
United Nations. In 1945, only four years after entering the Foreign Service,
Council that both countri
Bennett served as an adviser to the U.S. delegation at the UN conference in San
negotiating again and ha
Francisco. He served again as an adviser to the U.S. delegation at the United
between the foreign minis
Nations in 1950.
at least they did not go to
He is perhaps best remembered for his part in the American intervention in
I had managed all thr
the Dominican Republic in 1965. President Johnson, fearing that political in-
stability would turn the Dominican Republic into "another Cuba," ordered
been away. I believe he
American troops in to restore order. Bennett, then U.S. ambassador to the
at one point. And when
Dominican Republic, worked with special envoy Ellsworth Bunker to arrange
final day [of the debate]
free elections and the restoration of normal political life.
And he said, "No, indeed,
After serving as ambassador to Portugal (1966-69), Bennett was appointed
this all out. You've work
deputy U.S. representative on the Security Council (1971-72) and deputy
credit-you know, cast t
permanent representative to the United Nations (1973-76). He became U.S.
where Bill Scranton was
permanent representative to NATO in 1977, his final diplomatic assignment.
men in America's public li
During his tenure at the United Nations, Bennett gave special attention to eco-
George Bush was, I th
nomic and social issues affecting Latin America and the Third World. He chaired
UN. [Soviet Ambassado
a UN visiting committee to the remote trusteeship of Papua in New Guinea in
favorite capitalist." He [E
1972; the U.S. delegation to the UN Development Conference in Geneva (1973);
were in a debate; it was 0
and the UN Conference on Industrial Development in Lima, Peru (1975).
old Baroody [Saudia Ar:
know he could go on for
paper no bigger than a qu
I was at the UN during the Third World's rise in importance, and
was berating the Israelis, :
they were quite unified in the beginning. Now, of course, they've
I don't know why a Saudi
got their own internal differences. But I was there during the period
he was. And just at that ti
when they were at their maximum of unity, and the Algerians were
out pausing in his oratory
running it [Group of 77]; Abdelaziz Bouteflika was their foreign
Bush. Come in and sit dow
minister. They ran it with a whip hand. They'd have these meetings,
oil companies. I want you
and if they had trouble, they'd just stay until after midnight, after
in oil himself.
172
The Nixon-Ford Years, 1969-76 / 173
manent Representative on
some of the more comfortable nonaligned [delegates] had gone
ity Permanent Representa-
home. Then the Algerians would ram their measures through; they
would tyrannize some of the milder Africans. I would say there was
one year-and I don't think this is too much of an exaggeration-
nerously, but, at the same
when in many ways the single most influential country at the UN
e to stand up for what we
was Algeria: more than ourselves, more than the Russians, more than
) understand our concerns
the British, just because they had this vehicle at their beck and call,
lieve in a perfectly honest
and used it. And they were absolutely unscrupulous [as to] parlia-
mentary rulings-not hearing a "no," and that kind of thing.
In 1976 we had the Aegean dispute [over rights on the con-
ew York Times when he retired
tinental shelf] between Greece and Turkey. That was certainly one
Bennett. Jr., has had a long and
of my major accomplishments and satisfactions; we worked on that
Latin America, Europe, and the
for weeks. We finally got a reasonable resolution out of the Security
:r entering the Foreign Service,
Council that both countries lived with, and it started them [off] to
ion at the UN conference in San
e U.S. delegation at the United
negotiating again and having exchanges and visits and meetings
between the foreign ministers. Nothing really had been resolved, but
t in the American intervention in
at least they did not go to war, which they had been close to doing.
ohnson. fearing that political in-
I had managed all through the debate, because Bill Scranton had
: into "another Cuba," ordered
been away. I believe he was at the Republican national convention
t, then U.S. ambassador to the
at one point. And when he came back [to the council], it was the
oy Ellsworth Bunker to arrange
final day [of the debate] and we were going to have the solution.
itical life.
And he said, "No, indeed, I will not take the chance if you've worked
966-69), Bennett was appointed
this all out. You've worked on it for a month, so you must have the
Council (1971-72) and deputy
credit-you know, cast the vote." Which was nice. And that was
ons (1973-76). He became U.S.
where Bill Scranton was so marvelous. He's really one of the finest
his final diplomatic assignment.
men in America's public life.
lett gave special attention to eco-
a and the Third World. He chaired
George Bush was, I think, one of the most popular people at the
eship of Papua in New Guinea in
UN. Soviet Ambassador] Malik used to say, "Bush, you're my
ent Conference in Geneva (1973);
favorite capitalist." He [Bush] just could get along.
One day we
nent in Lima, Peru (1975).
were in a debate; it was on the Middle East, as they are so often, and
old Baroody [Saudia Arabian Ambassador] was orating, and you
know he could go on for hours. He'd do it all from a little piece of
paper no bigger than a quarter, and talk for an hour and a half. He
rld's rise in importance, and
was berating the Israelis, and berating the oil industry, and so forth-
ing. Now, of course, they've
I don't know why a Saudi Arabian should berate the oil industry, but
I was there during the period
he was. And just at that time Bush came in to take his seat, and with-
unity. and the Algerians were
out pausing in his oratory, Baroody said: "I'm glad to see you, Mr.
Bouteflika was their foreign
Bush. Come in and sit down. I'm having a few things to say about the
1. They'd have these meetings,
oil companies. I want you to hear this." Of course, George had been
tay until after midnight, after
in oil himself.
The Nixon-Ford Years, 1969-76 / 185
d tactic up to a certain
secretary, and the secretary himself, not to speak of the White
ou just tell them [the
House. On those very hot affairs, it didn't always mean that the
0 vote for it and you're
assistant secretary was cut out-he was not; but the kind of pre-
vote for it. That starts
paratory and analytical work that is done at the working level of
nodifications or amend-
the State Department did not get done. The basis of general policy
was made in this way, and then you would try to shape your tactics,
1 a somewhat difficult
your words, and proposals to the general policy.
because there wasn't a
President Nixon did not like to be bothered with more minute
ions in the Nixon admin-
issues, and I think that shows up in the studies I have seen of his
ith it, but they were not
administration. It had to be pretty important for him to get inter-
from past factors or even
ested. Some perm reps did not like to use whatever clout they had
with the White House-they did not want to waste it-so they tended
relationship with the UN
to be sparing. Others would turn to the White House, whenever they
o focus soon enough on
got resistance from the State Department or someplace else, and
as coming every year [in
[would] try to get a White House decision, which overrides every-
e agenda items were, and
thing. Very seldom, in my knowledge, did any of them talk directly
ery year we would send a
with the president. I should add that while the perm rep is a member
S, in various degrees of
of the cabinet, in every administration so far, meetings of the cabinet
General Assembly. These
have tended to decrease in frequency, the longer the president is in
he middle of August, and
office.
its, especially the smaller
Andrew Young had direct access to the president, and I think
nd made the decisions as
that was unusual for two reasons. If you look at the Carter adminis-
0 late for us.
tration, Andy and the president had a relationship before he took
artially because when the
office, and Carter was very interested in details and so he didn't
re are certain issues that
object to being talked to about detailed matters. Andy was a very
se they may be trouble-
unorthodox politician. I am not saying that he didn't think things
$ of precedence. In other
out in advance, but he would be more willing to depart from past
effort to make an unpre-
practice in how he handled his bureaucratic or White House relations.
nong many people in the
I think Young was almost unique, because Adlai Stevenson didn't
important decisions are
have it, Cabot Lodge didn't have it, George Bush didn't have it-I
:
true in certain issues like
don't know what Moynihan had-John Scali didn't have it; so I
y agreed to UN considera-
wouldn't know of anybody (certainly Yost didn't have it) who had
tend to come up without
that almost immediate access to the president and on detailed mat-
1 long in advance.
ters simultaneously.
n were extremely sincere
nce. But as far as our own
Personalities
atic struggles in Washing-
se were carried out. When
George Bush is a politician's politician. He has a very deep
of direct telephoning and
sense of responsibility, and he places a great deal of emphasis on his
tical affairs, the deputy
relationships and contacts. He didn't always follow the issues as
184 / Representing America
it's just unacceptable." Actually, it's a good tactic up to a certain
secretary, and the se
point. You don't offer any amendment, you just tell them [the
House. On those very
opposition] it's bad and you're not going to vote for it and you're
assistant secretary wa
going to encourage everybody else not to vote for it. That starts
paratory and analytic:
them on the procedure of trying to find modifications or amend-
the State Department
ments which would make it acceptable to us.
was made in this way,
The relationship with Washington had a somewhat difficult
your words, and propo
aspect during the years that I was there because there wasn't a
President Nixon d:
whole lot of enthusiasm for the United Nations in the Nixon admin-
issues, and I think tha
istration. They realized they had to cope with it, but they were not
administration. It had
inclined to make any significant departures from past factors or even
ested. Some perm rep
to take any initiatives.
with the White House-
The biggest problem to this day in our relationship with the UN
to be sparing. Others V
is getting people who can make decisions to focus soon enough on
got resistance from tl
what's coming up. We knew the assembly was coming every year [in
[would] try to get a
September], we knew what 95 percent of the agenda items were, and
thing. Very seldom, in
what the differing viewpoints would be. Every year we would send a
with the president. I sh
message to all embassies abroad to discuss, in various degrees of
of the cabinet, in every
detail or intensity, the issues of the next General Assembly. These
have tended to decreas
things never went out, at the earliest, until the middle of August, and
office.
by that time most of the other governments, especially the smaller
Andrew Young ha
ones, had pretty well done their analysis and made the decisions as
that was unusual for tv
to where they were headed. It was a little too late for us.
tration, Andy and the
It's partially bureaucratic inertia, and partially because when the
office, and Carter was
telegram goes out [to the embassies], there are certain issues that
object to being talked
have to be cleared at a higher level because they may be trouble-
unorthodox politician.
some issues that present problems in terms of precedence. In other
out in advance, but he
words, there might be an unprecedented effort to make an unpre-
practice in how he hanc
cedented decision. Also, it is the feeling among many people in the
I think Young was aln
foreign-policy establishment that the basic important decisions are
have it, Cabot Lodge (
not going to be made at the UN. That isn't true in certain issues like
don't know what Moy
the Middle East, where we have traditionally agreed to UN considera-
wouldn't know of anyl
tion of peacekeeping functions; but they tend to come up without
that almost immediate
warning, and we don't have to plan for them long in advance.
ters simultaneously.
I thought that the people in Washington were extremely sincere
and highly motivated, and a lot had experience. But as far as our own
Personalities
tactics were concerned regarding bureaucratic struggles in Washing-
ton, it was not always clear to me how those were carried out. When
George Bush is a
it was a very hot issue, there was a lot of direct telephoning and
sense of responsibility,
talking with the undersecretary of political affairs, the deputy
relationships and conta
8
The Carter Years, 1977-80 / 255
sly long-range concerns in the
think, will be protected, and it's very difficult to change that. The
such concerns as international
Reagan administration, before it came into office, promised that it
Vorld issues, economic develop-
was going to downgrade the job [of permanent rep]. It didn't,
it issues which, in the long run,
because it desperately needed to appoint a prominent woman to a
un are not. There aren't many
senior post, and that was one position they could give.
ency in the U.S. government.
For all of the bad-mouthing of the UN by many people, a lot of
ite, but he has got a lot of con-
people want the job, because it provides instantaneous prominence
and so there's an argument that
nationwide and makes the person who knows how to exploit the job
have an Adlai Stevenson or a
into a national figure, if not international. Andy Young received
of person, or an Arthur Gold-
thousands of speaking requests. Nobody else in the government,
except the secretary of state and the president, is such a focus of
neans to bring incoherence into
popular attention. That is a big attraction to someone like George
u are making it difficult for the
Bush, who has national ambitions and [in 1971] lost his race for
rew, a unified command. It is
Congress, yet doesn't want to get out of politics. The UN post got
ody like Moynihan, or Lodge-
him into the big time. People remember that.
0 are almost quasi-cult figures-
secretary of state to treat that
The United States and the Third World
ary ambassador. The person is
11 or she's special, then they're
I think the case can be made, and Moynihan at times makes it,
eges that go with being special,
that he was doing something constructive: that if he had not con-
ducted a diplomatic temper tantrum [against the Third World], the
ou should never appoint some-
reaction to the UN in the United States would have been permanent
the ideal ambassador to the UN.
rather than emotional and rhetorical. The country would have lashed
ofessional point of view, articu-
out and gotten out of the UN and closed off our contributions. Also,
ncluded at the end of his career
I will acknowledge that I don't think any representative of the
ke himself was a mistake. But
United States has ever been provoked as much as Moynihan. He was
be desirable to downgrade that
ambassador at a time when the hubris of the Third World delegates
point someone with an outside
moved to levels of high irresponsibility on some issues. He exaggerated
it and made a political case out of it. But I think it was a very diffi-
will ever happen. This is not
cult period to be ambassador at the UN; the revolution had come
le UN. Increasingly, they don't.
with oil prices, and other nations had the whip hand. Even so, I
tant position [with which] to
think Moynihan went too far.
un for president of the United
I have no problems with taking a tough line. As a matter of fact,
eople and powerful groups help
when I was assistant secretary, we told the Arabs we would walk out
get there, you look around and
of the World Health Organization-I wrote the speech for Califano-if
u can do for them in the short
they punished Israel or Egypt for signing [the] Camp David [ac-
slots to go around. Once you
cords]. I don't have any problems with that. What I do have a prob-
ituencies-once you're through
lem with is professional anti-Third Worldism-emotional, reactionary,
in the people you want, your
hateful, bigoted, knee-jerk hostility to the Third World. There are
ich left. So every senior job, I
some Third World countries that I think are absolutely reprehensible
W. TAPLEY BENNETT, JR.: Deputy Permanent Representative on
some of the more comfo
home. Then the Algerians
the Security Council, 1971-72; and Deputy Permanent Representa-
would tyrannize some of t]
tive to the United Nations, 1973-76.
one year-and I don't thin
when in many ways the SI
We should treat nations fairly and even generously, but, at the same
was Algeria: more than our
time, defend our own rights. I think we have to stand up for what we
the British, just because th
believe, and should expect other people to understand our concerns
even as we try to understand theirs. I believe in a perfectly honest
and used it. And they wer
approach.
mentary rulings-not hearin
In 1976 we had the
Dubbed the "dean of U.S. diplomats" by the New York Times when he retired
tinental shelf] between Gr
from the Foreign Service in 1983, W. Tapley Bennett, Jr., has had a long and
of my major accomplishme
active career as a diplomat, with assignments in Latin America, Europe, and the
for weeks. We finally got a.
United Nations. In 1945, only four years after entering the Foreign Service,
Council that both countries
Bennett served as an adviser to the U.S. delegation at the UN conference in San
negotiating again and hav
Francisco. He served again as an adviser to the U.S. delegation at the United
between the foreign ministé
Nations in 1950.
at least they did not go to и
He is perhaps best remembered for his part in the American intervention in
I had managed all thro
the Dominican Republic in 1965. President Johnson, fearing that political in-
been away. I believe he Wa
stability would turn the Dominican Republic into "another Cuba," ordered
American troops in to restore order. Bennett, then U.S. ambassador to the
at one point. And when h
Dominican Republic, worked with special envoy Ellsworth Bunker to arrange
final day [of the debate]
free elections and the restoration of normal political life.
And he said, "No, indeed,
After serving as ambassador to Portugal (1966-69), Bennett was appointed
this all out. You've worked
deputy U.S. representative on the Security Council (1971-72) and deputy
credit-you know, cast the
permanent representative to the United Nations (1973-76). He became U.S.
where Bill Scranton was SQ
permanent representative to NATO in 1977, his final diplomatic assignment.
men in America's public life
During his tenure at the United Nations, Bennett gave special attention to eco-
George Bush was, I thir
nomic and social issues affecting Latin America and the Third World. He chaired
UN. [Soviet Ambassador]
a UN visiting committee to the remote trusteeship of Papua in New Guinea in
favorite capitalist." He [Bu
1972; the U.S. delegation to the UN Development Conference in Geneva (1973):
were in a debate; it was on
and the UN Conference on Industrial Development in Lima, Peru (1975).
old Baroody [Saudia Arab
know he could go on for h
paper no bigger than a qua
I was at the UN during the Third World's rise in importance, and
was berating the Israelis, an
they were quite unified in the beginning. Now, of course, they've
I don't know why a Saudi A
got their own internal differences. But I was there during the period
he was. And just at that tim
when they were at their maximum of unity, and the Algerians were
out pausing in his oratory,
running it [Group of 77]; Abdelaziz Bouteflika was their foreign
Bush. Come in and sit down
minister. They ran it with a whip hand. They'd have these meetings.
oil companies. I want you
and if they had trouble, they'd just stay until after midnight, after
in oil himself.
172
The Nixon-Ford Years, 1969-76 / 173
Representative on
some of the more comfortable nonaligned [delegates] had gone
manent Representa
home. Then the Algerians would ram their measures through; they
would tyrannize some of the milder Africans. I would say there was
one year-and I don't think this is too much of an exaggeration-
i, but, at the same
when in many ways the single most influential country at the UN
nd up for what we
was Algeria: more than ourselves, more than the Russians, more than
stand our concerns
the British, just because they had this vehicle at their beck and call,
a perfectly honest
and used it. And they were absolutely unscrupulous [as to] parlia-
mentary rulings-not hearing a "no," and that kind of thing.
In 1976 we had the Aegean dispute [over rights on the con-
* Times when he retired
tinental shelf] between Greece and Turkey. That was certainly one
Jr., has had a long and
of my major accomplishments and satisfactions; we worked on that
America, Europe, and the
ring the Foreign Service,
for weeks. We finally got a reasonable resolution out of the Security
the UN conference in San
Council that both countries lived with, and it started them [off] to
delegation at the United
negotiating again and having exchanges and visits and meetings
between the foreign ministers. Nothing really had been resolved, but
American intervention in
at least they did not go to war, which they had been close to doing.
fearing that political in-
I had managed all through the debate, because Bill Scranton had
"another Cuba," ordered
been away. I believe he was at the Republican national convention
1 U.S. ambassador to the
at one point. And when he came back [to the council], it was the
sworth Bunker to arrange
final day [of the debate] and we were going to have the solution.
fe.
And he said, "No, indeed, I will not take the chance if you've worked
,9). Bennett was appointed
this all out. You've worked on it for a month, so you must have the
il (1971-72) and deputy
credit-you know, cast the vote." Which was nice. And that was
1973-76). He became U.S.
where Bill Scranton was so marvelous. He's really one of the finest
nal diplomatic assignment.
men in America's public life.
are special attention to eco-
the Third World. He chaired
George Bush was, I think, one of the most popular people at the
of Papua in New Guinea in
UN. Soviet Ambassador] Malik used to say, "Bush, you're my
onference in Geneva (1973);
favorite capitalist. He [Bush] just could get along
One day we
n Lima, Peru (1975).
were in a debate; it was on the Middle East, as they are so often, and
old Baroody [Saudia Arabian Ambassador] was orating, and you
know he could go on for hours. He'd do it all from a little piece of
paper no bigger than a quarter, and talk for an hour and a half. He
rise in importance, and
was berating the Israelis, and berating the oil industry, and so forth-
Now. of course, they've
I don't know why a Saudi Arabian should berate the oil industry, but
as there during the period
he was. And just at that time Bush came in to take his seat, and with-
and the Algerians were
out pausing in his oratory, Baroody said: "I'm glad to see you, Mr.
uteflika was their foreign
Bush. Come in and sit down. I'm having a few things to say about the
ney'd have these meetings,
oil companies. I want you to hear this." Of course, George had been
until after midnight, after
in oil himself.
Interview
A. I had come to the conclusion that at all levels the attack
A
VERY
would be totally disastrous. It didn't take a great deal of
brains to see that. Airborne troops were going to land 60
miles ahead of the ground troops and take three main
bridges over three big rivers. Then the relieving ground
CIVIL
troops had to go across the low country. We learned that
two of the best Panzer divisions in the German army. the
9th and 10th S.S. Panzer Divisions, were refitting right
where the 1st Airborne Division was going to land. I
ERVANT
couldn't see the strategic point of the operation.
Q. Did Field Marshal Montgomery get the advice?
A. He got it from a lot of people. I merely advised my own
Sir Brian Urquhart reflects on
general, General Browning, who was in charge of the
whole Market Garden operation. I said, "Look here, you've
war and peace, idealism and
got to rethink this. It's going to be a mess." That was com-
realism, and a lifetime at the
pletely overruled. Montgomery wanted to have a British
masterstroke to end the war. When you're young, you be-
United Nations as his organization
lieve that a good argument will win the day, and of course it
doesn't. It was a terrible experience because an immense
picks up a Nobel Prize
number of soldiers were killed, 12,000 as I remember. I was
greatly disillusioned because I then realized that people in
Rarely has the description "statesman" seemed so appro-
high positions were not necessarily always motivated by
priate. In his long career, however, Urquhart represented no
wisdom and concern for the common cause, but in fact
single state but rather every nation on the globe. During a 41-
could be motivated by other less desirable emotions, like
year career as a senior U.N. official, rising to the rank of
vanity, ambition and a desire to score a point off somebody.
Under Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs,
Urquhart, 69, found himself in the middle of virtually every
Q. In more than 40 years at the U.N., you must have set some
major international crisis. Though he retired 2½ years ago,
travel records.
Urquhart will be in the delegation that will travel to Oslo
A. You know, when the normal way of crossing the Atlan-
next week to receive the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to
tic was in the big liners that took five days. people were
the U.N. for its peacekeeping missions in Lebanon, Cyprus,
more careful about how they organized things. It seems to
Afghanistan and other volatile places. His efforts over many
me that Andrei Gromyko didn't like flying and almost al-
years not only in promoting the usefulness of the blue-helmet-
ways went on the Queen Mary. Partly it was to have time to
ed U.N. soldiers but also in directly supervising their opera-
have a think and have a rest. which was quite sensible.
tions earned him the nickname "Mr. Peacekeeper." In 1986
Urquhart became a Scholar-in-Residence at the Ford Foun-
Q. How did you view Gromyko? Did his ideology really get in the
dation, where he spoke with TIME staff writer
way of personal relations?
Scott MacLeod.
A. To some extent. This was the mistake Dag Ham-
marskjöld made with Khrushchev. He believed if you could
Q. Your father was an artist, yet you have had a career in
establish a personal relationship with leaders. you could ac-
diplomacy.
tually do a great deal more in times of crisis. That was true
A. I wasn't a diplomat. I was an international civil servant,
with someone like David Ben-Gurion, who after all was a
which is a completely different thing. I don't like the word
leader in a democracy. It made a huge difference to be able
diplomat, actually. The ordinary person thinks of people in
to get Ben-Gurion on the phone and say, "Now look here,
striped pants at a cocktail party or at a green baize table en-
my dear old friend, we have to get this straightened out."
gaging in circumlocutions about serious matters. I was
You can't do that with someone who's representing an
brought up between the wars, in a very dreary period of Euro-
ideologically authoritarian regime. They can't afford to
pean history. I had always wanted to work for the League of
take a personal view of politics. We can.
Nations, but it went out of business before I got into the game.
Q. The U.N. seems lately to be involved in a wide range of diplo-
Q. When the U.N. was formed, you were the second man recruit-
matic activities and initiatives. Is the U.N. responsible for peace
ed. Who got you involved?
breaking out?
A. I left the British army in July 1945 and went to work for
A. I don't think so. I think the change in the international
Arnold Toynbee at the Foreign Office research depart-
climate, which I suppose started with Mikhail Gorbachev,
ment. Gladwyn Jebb, now Lord Gladwyn, the Acting Sec-
is of incalculable importance. Of course, if you want to get
retary-General, was looking for a private secretary. Toyn-
out of a conflict with honor, the U.N. and the Secretary-
bee suggested me. I was 26.
General are the best way of doing it.
Q. Perhaps it's not too widely known that you were the young in-
Q. No doubt you are pleased that U.N. peacekeeping forces won
telligence officer portrayed in Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too
the Nobel Peace Prize.
Far. What led you to advise against the ill-fated British attack on
A. I think this is recognition long overdue, of an extremely
Arnhem, in German-occupied Holland?
important idea with a very big future, which is the nonvio-
TIME. DECEMBER 5. 1988
MARIANNE BARCELIONA
"This is an extremely important
idea, using soldiers as a
catalyst for peace rather than
as an instrument of war."
lent use of soldiers by the international community, and us-
Q. One time things didn't work very well was in 1967, when the
ing soldiers as a catalyst for peace rather than as an instru-
U.N. agreed to withdraw peacekeeping troops from the Sinai. A
ment of war.If we're in a state of evolution toward a better
war ensued, which led to Israel's occupation of the West Bank
international arrangement. I think one can see the peace-
and Gaza Strip, as well as other Arab territories.
keeping forces a little bit like the civil-police forces, which
A. Nasser ordered the U.N. forces out. U Thant was the
were introduced into nations in the beginning of the last
only person who went to Nasser and said, "This is crazy.
century. They were considered to be completely ridiculous
You can't do this." U Thant got all the blame for it because
at that time, but it turned out this was a very powerful idea.
he was a very convenient scapegoat. Nobody ever men-
I think peacekeeping forces could become a very important
tioned that he really didn't have any alternative, particu-
institution. Most people can't understand what the hell all
larly since there was no international backing to stop either
these chaps in blue helmets are doing all over the place. It
side from getting into the war.
sounds very pretentious. but we have now developed the art
of war to such a point where you really can't use it. I think
Q. You thought highly of Dag Hammarskjöld.
you need an alternative, and maybe this is the beginning of
A. He had this slightly visionary quality. He did push.
the alternative.
much further than before. the idea of an active practical or-
ganization which could in desperate circumstances actual-
Q. What's it like out on the peacekeeping beat?
ly operate in the field and do something to try to calm
A. It's not like being an ordinary soldier. You can't open
things down.
fire except in the extreme case of self-defense. You have
to stay above the battle, to talk constantly to both sides
Q. Kurt Waldheim has turned out to be the most controversial of
and defuse misunderstandings. And even to be on hand
the Secretaries-General.
when somebody's chicken runs over the line into the
A. I worked with him for ten years. He was not a very origi-
other people's territory, so you don't start a battle.
nal man. He was a very hardworking, extremely ambitious
5
51
Interview
man. I have totally revised my views about him. I have to
really like. They drifted gradually into a very controversial
say. because I find it totally unforgivable that he would
position as the great supporter of the government of Leba-
have repeatedly given this total misrepresentation of his
non. Well. to most people in Lebanon. the government is
wartime career. I have never seen any evidence that he
just another faction. and furthermore not a very powerful
was in any normal sense a war criminal. But he was cer-
faction. Amin Gemayel's authority seemed to stop at the
tainly in a particularly tough unit of the German army.
gates of the Baabda palace.
To have told lies about this. for a public figure in that po-
The only conceivable way to force them into a union
sition of responsibility. seems to me to be absolutely un-
would be by years of negotiation and evolving a whole se-
forgivable. It's particularly bad in that office because the
ries of ties of interest. but nobody's been able to do it. not
Secretary-General of the U.N. doesn't have great divi-
since the French.
sions. or money. or sovereign power. His sole important
weapon is his credibility. I had always accepted his own
Q. You carried a message from Yasser Arafat to Menachem
version.
Begin?
A. That was just before the 1982 invasion. I think Arafat is
Q. You had discussed his background with him?
genuinely convinced that he has to find a means of coexis-
A. Yes. It never occurred to me for a single minute that a
tence with Israel. What Arafat was saying was that he was
man in that position would not tell the truth to one of his
interested in peace. and that if he was disposed of. it was
closest colleagues, particularly someone who was going to
unlikely that anyone else would come along who was as
defend him. And I deeply resent the idea that I was actual-
convinced of this as he was. I don't think any of these mes-
ly perpetrating a falsehood unknowingly for all that time.
sages were new or particularly welcome to Begin.
Q. Many Americans came to feel the U.N. had become a forum
Q. Is the world becoming a safer place?
for Third World radicalism and anti-Ameri-
A. I think at the superpower level one
can actions. How did you see it?
has to believe and hope that the threat
A. I can very well understand Ameri-
"My idealism is a
has for various reasons decreased. But
can disillusionment and irritation.
I think the situation at the intermedi-
One must also remember that it was
great deal more
ate level requires a great deal of atten-
the U.S. that pioneered decoloniza-
tion. There is an enormous arms flow
tion, which gave birth to the Third
realistic than the
to the developing world.
World. There was a kind of adolescent
notion that
period. I think. in the newly indepen-
Q. When you started out at the U.N., it was
dent developing world where people
human beings
considered to be a monument to idealism by
became, as adolescents often do. ex-
are born to kill
many people. Did you get discouraged?
tremely radical. The typical example
A. I don't think you could say that
of this trend. the assembly resolution
each other."
President Roosevelt. Mr. Churchill
equating Zionism with racism. was a
and Mr. Stalin were starry-eyed ideal-
totally counterproductive move.
ists. They had been through the fire of
war. Did anybody really think in 1945
Q. You worked with Javier Pérez de
that every government would re-
Cuéllar.
nounce the use of force in its relations
A. I was delighted when he became Secretary-General.
with every other government. and agree to settle all dis-
He is a very well-qualified person and extremely intelli-
putes with peaceful means, and disarm? This was the
gent man, who knew the job very well. a very quiet ex-
aim. The U.N. Charter was a great beacon set on a hill,
tremely self-effacing man. He spent the sort of wilderness
the great light toward which we were supposed to be
years from 1982 to 1987. pretty bad years in the U.N., as
working. We haven't had World War III. I don't see any
the only negotiator on Afghanistan. Iran-Iraq, Western
reason to be downhearted. One should be frustrated. and
Sahara, Cyprus and a lot of other things. and he estab-
certainly working in the U.N. was a great exercise in that.
lished a position of great respect with all the different an-
And one should be more determined than ever to keep af-
tagonists in all these situations. When the international
ter the basic objective.
climate changed and the outburst of common sense began
to take place, he was in a position to act very quickly.
Q. Your idealism is showing.
A. I am an idealist, I have to admit. I think human nature
Q. In 1978 U.N. peacekeepers started patrolling the border
is self-interested. But there is such a thing as enlightened
between Lebanon and Israel, but then in 1982 another war
self-interest. The trick is to engage self-interest at the point
broke out.
where it touches other people's self-interest. Why
A. The Israelis wanted to strike a blow at the P.L.O. I
shouldn't it be done on the international level, particularly
spent a great deal of time trying to persuade rather skepti-
when we have invented a way of putting an end to the
cal Israelis, including Ariel Sharon. that they were better
whole experiment. by nuclear or other weapons of mass
off without an invasion.
destruction. That is what the U.N. should be all about. I
maintain that my idealism. which is based on some fairly
Q. Did you agree with the idea of sending the multinational
rough experience, is a great deal more realistic than the
force, a non-U.N. group that included U.S. Marines, into Beirut
totally defeatest notion that human beings are born to suf-
to help patch Lebanon back together again?
fer and kill each other. If one believes that. one should go
A. No, I think it was a vast misreading of what Lebanon is
dig a deep hole and jump into it.
DECEMBER 5 1988
entrusted Gorbachev with a somewhat paradoxical task:
LONDON The Observer (independent weekly): The revolu-
He must dismantle the power of a party from which he
tion in the leadership is an astounding triumph [and] a
draws all of his power
If one loses sight of this con-
slap to those, in both the Soviet Union and the West, who
tradiction, one risks not understanding the nature and im-
have consistently doubted Gorbachev's will and ability to
portance of the revolution in progress
Those who
carry perestroika forward. But it is still only a political
criticize the power grab as contrary to the philosophy of
revolution. And what the Soviet Union, and the leader-
glasnost understand very little about the process of change
ship, need desperately is an economic one.
in Moscow and Eastern Europe.
-Eugenio Scalfari
-Andrew Wilson
The Nobel Peace Prize
FRANKFURT Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (conserva-
there are 10,000 troops from two dozen countries under
tive): On a number of occasions the peace prize has been
the command of the UN secretary-general. Their task is to
awarded as a kind of advance payment: in 1973 to Henry
divide warring parties and reduce tension. But wherever
Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, in 1978 to Anwar Sadat and
an armistice breaks down, they can do little. They have
Menachem Begin, in 1987 to Oscar Arias. Subsequent de-
neither the political authority to fight nor the necessary
velopments did not deliver the hopes that the prize prom-
military equipment. Thus far, 550 of these soldiers have
ised. In Indochina, the Middle East, and Central Ameri-
been killed. For them, the Nobel Prize is a posthumous
ca, there is as yet no peace. No doubt this year's award to
and belated honor.
-Günther Nonnenmacher
the United Nations peacekeeping forces is also motivated
by hope that this year's enhanced role and prestige for the
UN will lead to new tasks and assignments for the "Blue
PARIS Le Monde (liberal): By designating the peacekeep-
Helmets"-in Namibia or Cambodia, for example. Today
ing forces, the Nobel committee chose precisely that part
of the UN that it wanted to reward. To have chosen the
UN in its entirety might well have launched a new round
of criticism and controversy over one part of the system or
LIKE
BANK
ALL
THE
LITTLE
PEOPLE
another. It is much more difficult, if justified at times, to
WHO MADE THE AWARD POSSIBLE..
criticize the soldiers of peace
The prize also rewards,
AYATOLLAH RUHOLLAH KHOMAINI, SADDAM HUSSEIN,
in large part, the man scheduled to accept it in Oslo on
VASSER
ARAFAT,
УПУНАК
SHAMIR,
SHUHON
PERES,
December 10: Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the secretary-gen-
MOMMINAR
GADHAFT
eral of the UN. The diplomatic successes of 1988, in the
spring with Afghanistan and in the summer with the Per-
sian Gulf war, owe much to this discreet, tenacious, and
effective intermediary.
TORONTO Globe and Mail (independent): After several
rocky years, the UN is on a roll
The UN's lucky stars
will stay aligned only while the big powers-are in a mood
to give the institution some clout to solve, or at least cool,
regional conflicts in which they have a stake.
-Jennifer Lewington
Nobel
LONDON The Observer (independent weekly): For the first
time in 15 years-some say the first time ever-the UN is
Award
working as it was meant to. Good humor and common
purpose, scarce commodities at the UN throughout most
of the 1970s and 1980s, are now considered almost nor-
mal. Class war is out, civility is in. People are listening as
well as talking. Old timers pinch themselves and wonder
Jenkins/Globe and Mail/Toronto
how long it can last.
-Nigel Hawkes
REVIEW
NOVEMBER 1988
CURRENTS
Higgins, the American Ma-
rine abducted by gunmen
PEOPLE MAKING NEWS
in Lebanon last February.
U.N. officials and Hig-
gins's family hope the
Capital stumble
Peace Prize will persuade
the kidnappers to free him.
The senator is not the first politi-
Left waiting for the call
cian accused of hanky-panky. But
that never came were Ron-
how many of them ignite their own
ald Reagan and Mikhail
scandal by trying to pre-empt it?
Gorbachev, who negotiat-
Brock Adams (D-Wash.) expected
October's Washingtonian magazine
ed the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Force Treaty and
to contain allegations by family
were viewed by many as
friend Kari Tupper, 26, that in 1987
he drugged and sexually assaulted
favorites for the prize.
her. (Police dropped the case for
HEALTH
lack of evidence.) When Adams's
efforts to alert friends leaked to the
Doctors who
Seattle press, he held a news confer-
ence, admitted that Tucker once
run on empty
stayed at his home, denied miscon-
duct and said she had since de-
manded $400,000 hush money (a
In 1984, 18-year-old Libby
Zion went to a New York
charge her family denies). The
hospital with a high fever.
Washingtonian story didn't appear.
Eight hours later, she was
Bishop Barbara
Rock throwers in West Bank include many youngsters
dead, the victim of a series
of medical mishaps includ-
Fourteen years ago, Barbara Harris
Army chief Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron in-
ing the use of a drug that may have fatally
carried the cross during a contro-
sisted that they are meant to minimize
versial, unauthorized ceremony or-
interacted with an antidepressant she was
deaths among protesters and have done
daining the Episcopal Church's
taking. A grand jury put part of the blame
so except in "very isolated incidents."
on the exhaustion of a resident and
first women priests. Last week, the
Yet Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin
an intern, who had been on duty 18
Episcopal Diocese of
Massachusetts elected the
gave an answer with harsher overtones.
hours. Such work bouts are com-
Beatings and tear gas are no longer ef-
mon in U.S. hospitals, where resi-
58-year-old black woman
fective, he said, and the demonstrators
as its new suffragan. Col-
dents often work 36 hours straight.
must learn that "more violence will
Last week, New York became the
leagues say her demeanor
and skills should win her
bring more suffering to them." That
first state to say enough is enough.
brought a protest from the U.S. State
It limited emergency-room physi-
the support of a majority
Department, where one official declared,
cians to 12-hour shifts, and plans to
of bishops and dioceses
"We can see no justification for a policy
hold other specialties to 80-hour
nationally, clearing the
admittedly designed to cause an increase
workweeks next year.
way for her consecration
Adams
in casualties."
As other states considered simi-
early next year as the first
lar moves, new findings challenged
female bishop in the An-
NOBEL PRIZES
the reformers' key premise. A re-
glican Church's 450-year
port in last week's Journal of the
history.
Peaceniks in berets
American Medical Association said
Addams chronicle
that 26 surgical residents given
He once arrived at a cos-
In the last four decades, 733 members of
mathematical, verbal and dexterity
U.N. peacekeeping forces from 58 na-
tests did just as well after they had
tume party as a "de-
tions. have been killed while serving as
stayed up all night as after they had
frocked ghoul," and in art
human buffers in conflicts around the
slept. But the findings, which con-
as in life New Yorker mag-
Harris
azine cartoonist Charles
globe. And many more
tradict previous stud-
Addams exhibited a fasci-
U.N. troops may soon pa-
U.N. peacekeepers
ies, were strongly at-
trol new hot spots as dis-
nation with the macabre. Addams,
tacked by sleep researchers,
putes in the Western Saha-
who died last week at 76, made his
who argued that the experi-
ra, Southern Africa and
ment failed to pick up dif-
reputation with a 1940 cartoon of a
Cambodia near resolution.
ferences in performance be-
skier whose tracks suggested she
The world has seldom said
cause even the "rested"
had skied through a tree. His Ad-
thanks-until last week,
dams family (including mother
doctors were dulled by
when the 10,000 blue-be-
long-term fatigue. Not test-
Morticia and a butler resembling
reted peacekeepers were
ed at all was the quality of
Frankenstein's monster) inspired a
awarded the Nobel Peace
TV series. Addams's third wife
care they gave.
Prize, setting champagne
wed him in 1980 while wearing
corks popping from Leba-
Currents contributors: William J.
black in a ceremony at a pet ceme-
non to Kashmir. One
Cook, William F. Allman, David
tery. She said Addams "thought it
peacekeeper who missed
Whitman, Miriam Horn, Joseph L.
would be nice and cheerful."
Galloway, Louise Lief, Joanne
the party was Col. William
Silberner, Gillian Sandford
12
U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT. Oct. 10. 1988
World
MIDDLE EAST
PRIZES
Plastic, but
Sorry, Ron
Deadly
And Mikhail
Palestinian casualties surge
A Nobel for U.N. peacekeepers
1 the 75-bed Al-Ahli Arab Hospital
n Washington they waited. In Moscow
A
in the Gaza Strip last week. wounded
they waited. In Oslo they knew. Despite
Palestinian protesters jammed the emer-
persistent rumors that Ronald Reagan
gency room. After unsuccessful surgery,
and Mikhail Gorbachev would share the
Abdulatif. 26. fingered the yellowing
1988 Nobel Peace Prize for signing last
gauze wrapped around his left leg. Still
year's agreement banning intermediate-
lodged deep in his left thigh was a plastic
range nuclear weapons, the prize was
bullet. Israel's latest ammunition against
awarded last week to the United Nations
the ten-month-old intifadeh (uprising) by
peacekeeping forces. Egil Aarvik. chair-
Palestinians in the occupied territories.
RINA CASTELNUOVO
man of the five-member Norwegian No-
Abdulatif pulled aside the bandage to re-
bel Committee, cited the multinational
veal a reddish silver dollar-size hole in
army of 8,600 for its contribution to "re-
his flesh. Explained a nurse: "There is no
ducing tensions where an armistice has
difference between plastic and real bul-
Wounded Arab in a Gaza hospital
been negotiated but a peace treaty has yet
lets. They both enter the body and
Aiming to maim with special bullets.
to be established." First sent into action in
destroy."
1948 as an observer mission between Isra-
Since Defense Minister Yitzhak Ra-
generally barred from using regular am-
el and its Arab neighbors, the peacekeep-
bin instructed his soldiers in late August
munition unless their lives are in immedi-
ing forces have enforced an uneasy calm
to start using cartridges tipped with plas-
ate danger. Israel has tried dispersing pro-
in 14 conflicts and are currently deployed
tic to break up riots in the occupied terri-
testers by firing rubber bullets. which
in nine countries. Over the years. the
tories, Palestinian casualties in Gaza
bruise but rarely penetrate the skin. Ag-
forces have lost more than 700 lives.
alone have leaped from about 20 in July
gressive Palestinians were undaunted.
The news further lifted morale at the
to more than 170 in September. At close
The new .556-mm plastic projectiles are
U.N., which. after years of being criti-
range, the bullets can even
supposedly less lethal than
cized by the U.S. as irrelevant and ineffec-
kill. Not surprisingly, Ra-
tual, has enjoyed notable successes in
bin's latest gambit to crush
YARON KAMINSKY
full metal jackets. but they
are intended to cause inju-
helping end the Soviet invasion of Af-
the intifadeh has provoked
ries serious enough to put
ghanistan and the Iran-Iraq war. U.N.
yet another round of criti-
demonstrators out of action.
Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cué-
cism from abroad and from
By design or not, Ra-
llar. who will travel to Oslo in early De-
Israel's far left, which
bin's new crackdown may
cember to accept the medal and $388.000
charges Rabin with exces-
have the political benefit of
on behalf of the soldiers, was also touted
sive brutality. But it has also
reassuring Israeli voters who
as a possible prizewinner.
raised a disturbing new
deem the Labor Party soft
Though the U.N. forces are obviously
question: Are Israeli leaders
on the Palestinians. The
a worthy selection. Aarvik did little to
turning up the violence
right-wing Likud bloc of
dampen speculation that the committee
against Palestinians as a
Prime Minister Yitzhak
passed over Reagan and Gorbachev out of
way of pandering to voters
Shamir refuses to surrender
concern that the award would boost
before Israel's crucial na-
any of the West Bank and
George Bush's presidential chances.
tionwide election on Nov. 1?
Gaza, and some members
Asked if the U.S. election campaign
Last week, as seven pro-
even boast they could crush
played a part in the decision, Aarvik re-
testers were killed-two by
Israel's new ammo
the intifadeh in weeks. La-
plied, "We take everything into consider-
plastic bullets-and more
bor leader Shimon Peres has
ation, everything."
than 90 others wounded, the U.S. State
endorsed proposals for negotiations that
Department rebuked Israel by saying
would return some territory to Arab rule.
there is "no justification" for deliberately
which many interpret as signifying an in-
causing Palestinian casualties. Some U.S.
ability to quell the rebellion. Rabin seems
officials charge that Rabin's plastic bul-
determined to prove them wrong. Said
lets are aimed at the voters. The Defense
Shamir media adviser Avi Pazner: "If you
Minister. considered the No. 2 figure in
take the last nine months. it's certainly
Israel's Labor Party. dismisses the notion
helped Labor to have a tough Defense
that his new crackdown is politically
Minister."
motivated. But he makes no apologies
Ultimately, Rabin's rough tactics may
about stepping up the army's operations.
make little difference in Labor's campaign
"The rioters are suffering more casual-
to win a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
ties," he told reporters during a tour of
The November vote is widely seen as a ref-
the West Bank. "That is precisely our
erendum on whether Israel should keep
aim. Our purpose is to increase the num-
the occupied lands or get out. The latest
ber of [injured] among those who take
opinion polls show Labor and Likud run-
part in violent activities, but not to kill
ning neck and neck. Israel's two main po-
them."
litical groupings thus may be forced to
Rabin contends that other methods of
spend yet another four years as uneasy
curbing the protests have proved ineffec-
partners in a coalition that must deal with
tive, including tear gas and the brutal
an uprising no kind of bullet has managed
beatings that prompted an international
to quell.
-By Scott MacLeod.
On patrol in southern Lebanon
outcry earlier this year. Israeli troops are
Reported by Jon D. Hull/Gaza City
More than 700 lives lost in 40 years.
TIME. OCTOBER 10. 1988